


Little Love Love Love

by lines_12



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-04-05 21:47:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 62,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4196097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lines_12/pseuds/lines_12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sentimental goals are okay, sometimes they're even cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at fic writing, hopefully it went well.

“Are you ready?” Erin asked taking her hand in the locker room.  
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” She sighed.  
“You know you don’t have to do this. You can play another season. It can wait. We can wait.”  
Ella half grinned, “No, it’s time. It’s been something I’ve wanted since I was a kid, I’m ready. We’re ready. But that’s a talk for after this game.”  
Erin kissed her new wife’s cheek, “Whatever you say my dear. Score a goal for me, okay?”  
“Only if you give me a clean sheet,” She said with tears in her eyes.  
“Hey, hey,” Erin said taking her in her arms, “No tears, not yet.”  
~  
“In her final appearance with the Houston Dash, our captain, number thirty, Ella Masar-McLeod,” the announcer called out. Ella stepped out from the line and waved. She was greeted with a thunderous applause and cheers. She knew her whole family had flown in for her final professional game--her brother and sisters, her mom, her nieces and nephew and Erin’s sisters too.They were in the front row with a sign that said, ‘WE LOVE ELLA’, as she stepped back into line, she took a deep breath so she wouldn’t start crying then and there. Erin touched her elbow as she stepped forward to greet the crowd. That gave her the strength that she needed to hold it together for a little bit.  
In the 58th minute of play, Ella scored her goal. She was so happy that she did a celebration similar to the one she did when she scored the first goal in the Dash’s history. Of course, she goal a card for it, but she didn’t care she was on top of the world. She celebrated with her teammates and pointed at Erin who was still in goal and winked.  
In the end, the Dash came away with a 1-0 win thanks to Ella’s goal. But as the final whistle blew, Ella started crying. She knew she was leaving the game for all the right reasons, but it was still sad to leave something she loved so much. She wiped her tears and waved at all the people cheering for her team. Erin walked over to her and held her hand and said, “I am so proud of you, thank you for being my all my reasons, I love you,” and kissed her on the cheek before letting everyone on the team come up to hug Ella and congratulate her.  
~  
After getting showered and going home, Ella tweeted a picture of her and Erin standing in front of their family with the giant sign they made with the caption, “So thankful for all the love and support- my family, friends, fans, and most importantly- my wife. #lovelovelove” Ella was sitting in their bed with Max when Erin walked in and sat next to her.  
“You’re possibly the most beautiful person on this earth. How did I get so lucky?” Ella asked.  
“It’s because the dog picked you,” Erin laughed, “I have to listen to him.”  
“You married me because your dog likes me more than you?”  
“Well, also because you’re brilliant, and beautiful, and kind.”  
“Better answer,” Ella said as she leaned in for a kiss.  
“Can you believe we’re actually going to do this?”  
“Make a baby? Yeah, I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life,” Ella said, moving so that they were facing each other, “Especially with you. I never thought I could be this happy until you came into my life. I’m so excited to start our little science project, but we need to pick the other part.”  
They both agreed to give it a few months before they actually started trying to do anything, so they spent the next several weeks looking at sperm donors, ruling almost every single one out because he was not ‘perfect’, eventually, they did settle on one, he had a degree in studio art, ran marathons, and worked with underprivileged kids.  
“This is for real happening,” Erin said one day while they were making dinner.  
Ella was taken aback by what her wife said, she bit her lip, “If you don’t think we’re ready, then we can wait.”  
Erin saw that Ella was getting a little teary and realized what her wife thought she was saying, she took her in her arms and held her tight, “Oh, honey, no. We are so ready. When we first met I knew I wanted everything with you. I just never thought I would be lucky enough for this--for us--to be for real.”  
Ella wiped tears from her cheek, “Okay.”  
“Okay,” Erin whispered, kissing her forehead.


	2. Chapter 2

Two weeks after their first attempt, Ella woke up bright and early and walked over to their bathroom, still bleary eyed from sleep. She rubbed her eyes, and grabbed the box from under the sink and pulled a test out. She took it, and set it aside, and went on with the rest of her morning routine--washed her face, brushed her teeth, flossed--before letting herself look at the test. She told herself that if it was negative, that it was okay, it was only their first try after all, but she knew deep down that she would be heartbroken if it didn’t work out. She made sure she got up before Erin so that if it was negative she had some time to process without her wife hovering over her asking if she was okay or if there was anything she could do for her. She took a deep breath, and stared at the thing, in all of its pee soaked glory, the thing that could change her life forever, that nasty pee stick that was going to tell her that despite their best efforts it didn’t work.  
But, instead of the soul crushing single line she told herself was going be there, she saw two of the most life affirming lines ever and she just grinned at that beautiful, wonderful pee stick. It was positive. It was happening, for real, having a baby with Erin wasn’t just a dream anymore, it was really happening. She was shaking, she looked at herself in the mirror, took a deep breath, and slowly walked back into the bedroom, snuggled up next to her still sleeping wife, and fell asleep.  
She woke to her wife staring at her straight in the face, “What are you staring at, Erin?”  
“My most favorite wife.”  
“Unless you’re not telling me something, I’m pretty sure I’m your only wife.”  
“As of now you are.”  
Ella pushed Erin lightly, “Yeah, ‘til death do us part.”  
“M-hmm,” she sighed snuggling her face into Ella’s neck.  
“Hey so, I got up earlier this morning.”  
“Why?” Erin asked kissing her neck.  
Ella bit her lip, “It’s been two weeks.”  
With that, Erin shot up in bed, “You took a test? Why didn’t you wake me up?”  
Ella took a deep breath, “Because if it was negative, then I want to have some time before I had to tell you because I know you would be hovering over me.”  
Erin took a little offence, “I do not hover!”  
“You do though.”  
“Well, since you took it, do I have a reason to hover over you?”  
Ella bit her lip once more, “No.”  
“No like it was positive or no like it was negative and you want me to leave you alone?”  
“Well,” she said taking Erin’s hand and setting it between her hips, “in a couple of months you’re gonna have somebody new to hover over.”  
Erin’s eyes got wide, “Wait, really?”  
“Yes! Really!” Ella smiled ecstatically.  
Erin kissed her all over, “I love you. You’re wonderful. I can’t believe this is real. I love you. And our science project too.”  
Ella laughed, “I think we need to stop calling it a science project.”  
“It was a science project! I’m going to keep calling it out little science project, I like it.”  
Ella rolled her eyes, “I’m getting breakfast.”  
“No, you’re staying in bed. I’ll get you breakfast.”  
“Erin, I’m pregnant not crippled, I can handle making a bowl of cereal.”  
“I know, but let me do it. I can bring it to you, and since we don’t have plans, I think we should hang out in bed and watch movies all day. We can get take out for dinner?”  
“‘kay,” Ella said covering herself in the blankets. Just because she was capable of making a bowl of cereal didn’t mean she was going to stop Erin from waiting on her for the day.  
When Erin returned with their cereal, she handed it to Ella and crawled back into bed. At this point, Ella was starving. Excitedly she took a huge spoonful and stuck it in her mouth. It tasted like death, it was so bad that she had to spit it back into the bowl. Erin looked at her like she was crazy, “This milk tastes like it’s gone bad. I think it’s spoiled,” Ella said in an attempt to justify why she spit a half chewed spoonful of cereal back into the bowl.  
Erin took a bite of her own, looked at her wife again, “It’s fine, you’re crazy.”  
“I’m not crazy!” Ella said getting out of bed, walking into the kitchen, and throwing her cereal in the trash, “I’ve never tasted anything so nasty in my entire life!” She returned to the bed with a spoon and a jar of peanut butter, “I’m facetiming my sister. I need to tell her.”  
“Are you sure? It’s so early…” She trailed off.  
Ella set her peanut butter on the nightstand and hugged Erin, “It’s okay. We have to tell someone. You know how bad I am at keeping secrets, remember when we started dating and everybody had us figured out in, like, a few months?” Erin grinned to herself, nodded, and put her head on Ella’s shoulder. With that Ella facetimed her twin.  
She picked up on the first ring, “Ella! Just the sister I was looking for!”  
Ella smiled, “Hey Auntie Wooze! How are you on this lovely morning?”  
Liza’s eyes got wide, “Hold it. Auntie? What?”  
Ella looked down at her shoulder where Erin’s head was currently resting, and Erin looked back up at her and grinned, “Yes. Auntie.”  
Liza was still confused. “Did you guys get another dog or something?”  
“No,” Ella laughed.  
“Oh my god, you’re not,” Liza practically yelled into the screen.  
They nodded yes at the same time.  
“Sis! How could you not even tell me this was a thing that was going to happen soon?”  
“We decided to keep that bit to ourselves to make sure it actually worked.”  
“Ugh I wish I was there to hug you two!” Liza said, “When can I expect my wonderful niece or nephew?”  
Erin sat up a little straighter, because she wasn’t sure of the answer herself, but Ella knew, “Early September of next year. But listen, Wooze, you absolutely cannot tell anyone. Not Mom, not Ser, not Ty, not even your husband.”  
Ella reached over for her jar of peanut butter while Liza was asking why, and put a huge scoop in her mouth, “We found out literally a few hours ago, and your sister can’t keep anything to herself so we called you so she could tell somebody,” Erin answered.  
Ella teasingly pushed her wife, “I can totally keep things to myself!” she said through a mouthful of peanut butter, “I kept it to myself for a whole hour.”  
“Yeah because you fell asleep. Otherwise you probably would’ve told the whole world.”  
“Maybe I should go,” Liza said, “You know let you two settle your marital dispute.”  
“I only would’ve told Liza! She’s my twin she needs to know these things!”  
“Congrats, you guys. I love you I’m hanging up now.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next few weeks for Ella were full of avoiding any and all dairy products, attempting to squeeze into a pair of jeans, sometimes successfully, other times giving up and settling for a pair of leggings that had the beloved elastic waistband. The other thing was putting any and all activities on hold so she could go to the bathroom. Sometimes it was to pee, other times it was for morning sickness. She thought morning sickness was the biggest joke of all time it was never in the morning. It was all the time. And almost all the time, Erin was there to hold her hair and rub her back.  
One day when it was particularly bad, they were sitting on the tile floor of the bathroom, Ella had her head between her knees, “This is terrible.”  
Erin bit her lip, she hated having to watch her wife go through this. Watching her throw up sucked, but it also made her feel queasy to watch. She never did well with vomit, when she was younger kids in school would get sick and it triggered her to do it as well. Of course, she never told Ella this because she wanted to be there for her and if she knew how Erin reacted to it she would send her away and Erin very much didn’t want that. In her best attempt to make her miserable wife feel better, “It’s only for a little bit.”  
Ella looked up at her, “Believe me I have a countdown until when I’m not supposed to feel like garbage anymore.”  
“At least you you look cute,” Erin said running her hand up and down the length of Ella’s leg.  
“Thanks, but I’m about to not be cute in a second.”  
The next day, Erin had a meeting and a few errands she needed to run, and when she got back that afternoon she found Ella asleep on the couch with Max. She took a picture and posted it on Instagram, “My entire heart in one place. #myhero” After posting the picture, which she was sure people would obsess over, she went to the kitchen and took out Ella’s personal jar of peanut butter (nearly the only thing she was sure to keep down) and set it on the table next to her sleeping wife. As she sat and watched Ella sleep, she couldn’t help but think about how excited she was to be having a kid with the most amazing woman in the world. Not only that, they were going to be a family--not that they weren’t a family before, but they were going to be moms, like lunch packing, recital attending, carpooling moms--this was a whole new world for them. Everything was going to change a matter of months and she was ready.


	4. Chapter 4

Ella woke up to an alarm, she groaned and rolled over to turn it off. She was going to let herself sleep in for a while longer, but then she remembered that they were going to their first doctor’s appointment in a few hours. She sighed, stretched, and walked over to the bathroom to get ready. Ten minutes later, Erin appeared in the bathroom, hair a mess and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, “Good morning!” Ella said enthusiastically, kissing her.  
“Morning.” Erin mumbled. Erin was very much not a morning person, Ella never quite understood how you couldn’t be a morning person, the morning is great. She blearily grabbed her toothbrush and started slowly brushing her teeth.  
“Guess what we get to do today!” Ella said, wrapping her arms around her wife’s waist.   
“Doctor.” Erin said through a mouthful of toothpaste.  
“M-hmm,” She said kissing her cheek before she left the bathroom.  
~  
“I’m nervous,” Ella said in the car on the way to the doctor, “What if there’s something wrong?”  
Erin reached over and took Ella’s hand, “Speaking as the chief scientist of the operation, I can confidently say there is nothing wrong.” They laughed, “And after this is done we can call our family and tell them about our exciting scientific advancements.”  
Ella bit her lip and nodded.  
At the doctor, Ella sat in the waiting room and bounced her legs up and down nervously. It was driving Erin nuts, so she put her hand on one of Ella’s legs to stop her, she stopped for a second and shifted the nervous leg bouncing to her other leg. “Els, everything is fine, I promise.”  
She nodded nervously and kept bouncing.  
After what felt like a century, they were finally called back. They sat in their room as Ella nervously bit her lip and bounced her legs, Erin tried to calm her down by rubbing her back but she kept bouncing and biting her lip. Finally, the doctor finally showed up and explained to the pair what exactly was going to happen, which made Ella calm down a little bit.  
Erin sat through the whole appointment waiting for one thing, and the appointment seemed like it was wrapping up, “Are we, um, going to get to see the baby today?” she asked, nervously.  
“Oh, of course!” The doctor pulled out the machine and put the wand on Ella’s belly. After a few seconds of searching, the doctor found what looked to Ella like a bean. “That’s your baby.”  
Ella waited for Erin to say something, she was always better at words than her, but she didn’t say anything; she brought her hand to her mouth and kissed it. The whole thing got to be too much for Ella, and she started crying.  
At the sight of Ella crying, Erin got nervous, “What sweetie? What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing. It’s just… that’s ours and it looks like and alien. And I love that alien thing even though it’s sucking the life out of me.”  
Erin started getting teary, “I love it and I love you too.”


	5. Chapter 5

They left the doctor’s office with a photo of their alien science experiment and endless excitement. “Who are we telling first?” Ella asked when they were on the way back to the apartment.  
“We can tell your side since they’re kind of far from here and we can have dinner with my parents tonight and call my sisters after that?”  
Before Erin was even done with what she was saying she was on the phone with Liza.  
“Hey, we’re in the car. I’m putting you on speaker.”  
“How are my favorite twin and wife?”  
Ella spoke for the both of them, “We’re great, actually. We just got out of a doctor’s appointment.”  
“And how is my precious little niece or nephew?”  
“Perfect,” Erin said as they pulled into their parking garage.  
“It looks like an alien, Wooze. Don’t get me wrong it’s perfect and healthy, but the kid looks like a alien.”  
“She loves the alien, Liza,” Erin laughed, “She cried about how much she loves it.”  
“And they will be here when?”  
“End of August.”  
“Wooze, it has a heartbeat!”  
“El, it’s a baby, it’s supposed to have a heartbeat,” Erin laughed.  
Ella got flustered at this and stammered out a few excuses before finally giving up and letting it go.   
Liza laughed, “Hey I’ve gotta go back to work, send me pictures of that little alien. I love you.”  
“Love you too,” Ella said and hung up.  
She called her older sister next, she was thrilled that they were finally having a baby, and her nieces started screaming into the phone they were so excited to hear about their new cousin. After offering a few tips to her younger sister on dealing with morning sickness, Seredy told her she loved her and hung up.  
Tyson laughed and said, “I was wondering when it was gonna happen, sis. I’m so happy for you two. Grey’s really excited, she’s running around and clapping, I’m not sure that she knows what’s going on, but she’s thrilled.”  
Then Ella facetimed her mom, and after some catching up, she called Erin in and told her they had to tell her something, “Are you guys splitting up?” her mom asked, concerned.  
Ella and Erin looked at each other and looked back at her like she was crazy, “What? No, mom. We’re very much not splitting up.” she said and she held up the ultrasound.  
“Oh my goodness, Ella!” Her mom shouted with tears in her eyes, “Is that what I think it is?”  
Ella nodded, “I’m pregnant!”  
Ella’s mom was full on crying now, she was so excited, “My baby’s having a baby! When are you due? Are you feeling good? Is Erin taking care of you? She’d better be or I’m going to have to come up there and talk to her about how she’s treating my daughter!”  
Ella smiled and started getting a little teary, “End of August and aside from the morning sickness, I’m fine. She treats me like a queen, no need to come all this way for a while.”   
“I’m so excited for you two. Your dad would be too, you know that, El.”  
Ella’s eyes brimmed over with tears, “I know, he would be,” Erin rubbed her back, “I miss him everyday.”   
“He was so proud of you. I know I’ve said this before but he would’ve loved Erin. You couldn’t have picked better than her.”  
“Thank you, Ms. Masar. It means a lot.”  
“I love you guys. I’ll talk to you soon.”  
~  
They had a few hours before they had to leave for the McLeods’ house, so Ella put on sweats and a sports bra and crawled into bed. Erin was right behind her, Ella reached for her hand her hand. “Can you believe that there’s another human in the room?”  
Erin rolled on to her side so she could cuddle into Ella and buried her nose in her neck, “I know.” she said, putting her hand on Ella’s still flat belly, “and it’s our little human.”  
Ella kissed her head, “I want to tell Carm.”  
Erin looked up at her, “You can’t keep anything to yourself can you?” she joked.  
“I’m excited!”  
“You can tell Carm, but you need to tell her to put a lock on it. Remember the plan.”  
“Ah, yes the plan,” They had picked Valentine’s day to tell the world about the baby. They had planned a whole announcement, provided that Ella kept it to herself until then.   
Ella took a picture of the ultrasound and captioned it “Baby McLeod taking the field for Canada in August.” and sent it to Carm.  
Almost instantly, the phone was ringing, “Yes, Carmelina?” Erin answered.  
“What is this baby McLeod business?”  
“Well, we kind of made a baby.”  
“When did you do that and why didn’t you tell me? I live with you almost as much as your wife, and you didn’t tell me?” Carm asked, feigning offence.  
“Carm,” Ella said calmly, “We kept it a secret. We only started telling our family today. And-”  
Erin cut her off, “And Ella couldn’t keep it to herself so I let her tell you. But you have to put it on lock. We have a whole plan to tell everybody else.”  
“Of course I’ll keep my mouth shut, buddy! I’m so thrilled for you two. That kid is so lucky to have you losers as moms. And also to be a Canadian, you know what with its mother being a peasant American and all.”  
They talked for another hour about the national team and the Olympics. They ended the call and got ready for dinner with Erin’s parents.   
When they got to the McLeods’ house, Erin had a copy of Love You Forever with ultrasound photos inside the front cover wrapped in paper. They planned to give it to them after dinner, but Ella, as impatient as ever asked Erin if they could give them the gift now. “You are the most impatient person I have ever met,” she said.  
“I know, but you’re gonna have to deal with it, though. I’m going to explode.”  
“I suppose we can give it to them before dinner,” Erin said dramatically before they rang the doorbell.   
Erin’s mom opened the door and hugged them, “It’s so nice to see you two! Your father has been in the kitchen for hours. He made salmon and some kind of vegetable thing.”  
Ella bit her lip, she loved Erin’s dad’s salmon, but she couldn’t eat it. “Actually, we brought ya’ll a little something.”   
Erin handed her the wrapped book, “Open it with dad.” She said, taking Ella’s hand and following her mother into the kitchen.  
“Erin! Ella!” Her dad yelled, giving them his famous bone crushing hugs.  
“Look Steve! They got us something!” Erin’s mom said.  
“What is it? A trip to Hawaii?”  
“Open it!” Ella said impatiently.  
“Love you forever?” Erin’s mom looked at them, confused, “Honey, we already have a copy of this?”  
“Open the book.”  
Erin’s mom’s eyes got wide as she saw the ultrasound photos, her dad smiled. “You’re having a baby?”  
Erin nodded, “In August.”  
“I was wondering when you were gonna give us grandchildren! I was going to plant the seed tonight, but apparently you guys have already done that.”  
Erin blushed, “Mom!”  
“I want more grandkids!”  
“You already have Malcolm and Lilly. Is two not enough?”  
“There’s never enough babies, Erin.”  
“That’s enough Cheryl, you’re going to smother them.”  
Erin’s mom went to Ella and hugged her, “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Are you feeling alright?”  
“Yeah, I’m really great actually.”  
She hugged Ella once more before Erin’s dad intervened, “Give the girl some space, Cheryl.”  
She backed away before saying, “We are so proud of you two,” Erin’s mom said hugging them, “I remember the day when she was born. Little spitfire from the start.”  
Erin groaned, “Not the embarrassing baby stories again, mom.”  
“Oh, no, please go on! I love embarrassing baby stories.”  
“Have you heard the one about calling 911 when she lost her library books?”  
They spent the night talking about Erin’s embarrassing childhood stories and Ella shared a few of her own. Erin noticed Ella starting to get sleepy and decided she’d better get her wife home before she fell asleep on the couch.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short, I know, but I swear the next chapter will be longer.

A couple weeks later, Ella was having a particularly rough time buttoning her pants, frustrated, she changed her plans for the day, put on leggings, and spent the day on the couch watching trashy reality shows. Erin was away with the national team for the week, so there was nobody around to make her put on real clothes and do real things. She went on a light run in the morning and planned on not doing much else for the rest of the day. Before bed, she would call Erin and they would talk about their days and how Ella was feeling and how Max was doing.   
That night, before her nightly call with Erin, right after her shower, Ella was looking at herself in the mirror. Nothing really seemed out of the norm until she turned to her side. There was the tiniest little bump. If you didn’t know any better, it looked more like she had too much for to eat and less like she was growing a human. But it didn’t matter, she was thrilled, she put her hand on it and she could feel where the bump started and ended. She had to document it. Forgetting that she was fresh out of the shower, she took a picture and sent it to Erin, with the caption progress.   
Seconds later, Erin called, before Ella could even say hello, her wife started talking, “Ella, do you know how lucky we are that I room with Carm?”  
“I mean I know you like Carm quite a lot and we’re friends so she doesn’t get mad when we’re on the phone for too long because she gets to yell things to me through the phone. Why?”  
“Think about that picture you just sent me.”  
Ella looked down and gasped, “I sent you a nudie! Oh my god! Erin! Get rid of it!”  
Erin giggled, “I know. I will, but I got a good laugh out of it, so thank you.”  
“I just… I…” Ella stammered, “I was so excited when I noticed it and I had to show you and I didn’t even-- did Carm see it?”  
“It’s not anything new!” Carm yelled in the background, “I have the same parts as you!”  
“Am I on speaker?”  
“Yes.”   
“Carm, just ‘cause you have ‘em doesn’t mean you need to see other people’s!” She could hear Erin hold back laughter.   
“I’ve seen you naked before, bud. Nothing new. I get that you’re a married woman and all, but maybe you should consider not sending your wife those kinds of pictures.”  
“I didn’t mean to, Erin please promise me that you’re gonna get rid of it.”  
“I will, but it’s fun to tease you. I love it when you get flustered. It’s cute.”  
“Erin, help me out here!” Ella begged.  
“This is on you sweet cheeks.”  
“It was pregnancy brain!” Ella insisted before hanging up.  
Carm rolled her eyes, “When are you going to tell people? The social media queen can’t keep it a secret for much longer.”  
“We have a plan, when I get back to Van. It’s a whole thing. You’ll see.”


	7. Chapter 7

Ella brought Max to the airport with her to pick up Erin. When Erin got in the car, she could barely say hello to Ella before Max was licking her face, “Hello Max.”  
He kept licking her face.  
“I missed you too, bud.”  
When he finally stopped, Erin tried to kiss her wife, “No ma’am. He licked you all over your face after he spent half the ride here licking his ass. As much as I want to kiss you, it’s not gonna happen.”  
Erin sighed, “I missed you though!”   
Ella reached for Erin’s hand and kissed it, “I missed you too.”  
“How are you?”  
“Well, I haven’t thrown up yet today, but it’s still the morning, there’s still time. But other than feeling a pukey, I’m pretty okay. Better now that you’re home.”  
“I’m glad to be home. Carm gave me shit the whole time we were there because I kept checking in on you.”  
Ella laughed as she pulled out of the airport, “Everyone else can give you shit about it tomorrow. If it wasn’t me you were constantly checking on, I would make fun of you too!”  
“I just want to know that everything’s okay!”  
Ella squeezed her hand, “I know, love, but I’ve been puking my guts out for days. The kid is doing fine.”  
“I know, but I worry.”  
“Oh, I know, you hover. I love that you care that much, but you do hover,” Ella said as Erin opened her mouth to respond, “Don’t tell me you don’t hover.”  
“Okay but I want this to work out so badly.”  
“And it will,” Ella promised, “As of two days ago the chance of something really bad happening went way, way, way down. There is no need to worry.”  
~  
When they returned to their apartment, Erin showered while Ella laid in bed eating peanut butter out of the jar. After her shower, Erin cuddled up next to her and kissed her, “Hey.”  
“Hi,” she said.  
“You taste like peanut butter.”  
“You taste like toothpaste.”  
“It’s not a very good combo.”  
Ella smiled, “No, it’s really not.”  
Erin rested her head on her wife’s chest, “I missed you.”  
Ella kissed the top of her head, “I missed you too.”  
Erin fell asleep soon after, she began to snore softly.   
~  
The day after Erin returned from her national team duties was Valentine’s day. They woke up earlier than normal and gathered what they needed for their announcement, took Max and went to the park. It was warm for February, which was good for the pictures they were taking. At the end of their little photo shoot, they had at least a hundred pictures and Ella’s cheeks were rosy from the cold. Erin kissed her cheek and took a picture, “I’m posting this one right now.”  
Ella bit her lip, “Okay.”  
Happy Valentine’s day to my beautiful and inspiring wifey #lovelovelove  
They returned to their apartment and Ella immediately changed into leggings and one of Erin’s old Penn State sweatshirt, laid on the couch, and fell asleep. Erin decided to make breakfast while her wife slept, but it was a shot in the dark to guess what Ella would want or even be able to eat, but she stuck with the same heart shaped pancakes she had made the year before and just to be safe she cut up some bananas and put peanut butter on them.  
Ella wandered into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, “She has risen!” Erin said, guiding Ella to the table where she set the pancakes and bananas.  
“I feel better today than the last couple of days, so maybe it’s my second coming.”  
“Good, I’m glad. Eat,” she said sitting across from her.  
Ella managed to eat both the pancakes and the bananas, “You’re the best, you know.”  
Erin smiled, “You’re not too bad yourself.”  
~  
After finishing breakfast, they were sitting on the couch when Ella asked, “Can we post it now?”  
“Yes,” Erin said kissing her cheek, “We can absolutely post it now.”  
There were two pictures they chose to tell the world about their newest adventure they had taken that morning. In the first one, the one Ella chose to post, Erin was in her goalkeeper jersey and Ella was in one of her old Dash jerseys, their backs were facing toward the camera, and held between them was a tiny red Canadian jersey with McLeod 30 on the back, and Max was sitting next to Ella’s feet. In the second picture, they imitated a picture from their wedding day where Ella was showing off her ring, and Erin was smiling like a dork, but in place of the ring, Ella was holding an ultrasound picture.  
Ella captioned her’s before Erin was finished “our #littlelovelovelove taking the field for Canada in August #happiestvalentinesday”  
“Good?”   
Erin read over it, and pulled her wife closer to her, “Perfect. I’m stealing little love love love,” she said as she finished typing out her caption before handing her phone to Ella. “No shotgun wedding this time. Beyond excited to meet our #littlelovelovelove.”  
“Post at the same time?” Ella asked. Erin nodded.  
Ella sighed happily and cuddled into Erin, “I love you.”  
Erin laced their fingers together and kissed Ella’s hand, “I love you too.”  
“Even when I’m get big and fat?”  
“Even when you get big and fat.” Ella’s eyes welled up, “What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing.”  
“I don’t think I believe that.”  
“No it is literally nothing, like, I love you so much and I’m crying because of it. I think it’s a pregnancy thing,” Ella said, wiping the tears from her eyes, “Max and I got you a Valentine’s Day present.”  
“You and Max did?”  
“It was his idea,” Ella joked, as she untangled herself from Erin and disappearing into their bedroom, “it’s a couple things actually.” She said handing Erin a bag.  
“You know you didn’t have to get me anything.”  
“Don’t say that! You’re gonna hurt Max’s feelings.”  
Erin nodded, “Right, Max. Our first child.”  
“Just open it already! You’re killing me!” The first thing Erin pulled out of the bag was a book, wrapped in paper, she looked at her wife who was biting her lip. It was a book called ‘All about you you’, “It’s more for both of us, but I figured we could fill it out and then give it to the baby when they get older.”   
Erin smiled, nodded and kissed Ella’s cheek, “That’s a really good idea.”  
“Keep going,” The second gift was a new set of paint brushes, “Because one time you told me you never have enough,” the third and final gift was a pack of Corona and a few limes, “Yes I bought them, no I didn’t drink them.”   
Erin gave her a look, “They let you buy them?”  
Ella rolled her eyes, “Yes they let me buy them! You can barely tell that I’m pregnant yet, plus it’s winter, and we live in Canada! I could be out to here and people still wouldn’t know because of the way you have to bundle up.”  
Erin smiled at her, “I’m just giving you shit, thank you babe,” she kissed her and buried her face in the nape of Ella’s neck, “I got you something too.”  
“What is it?” Ella asked, excited.  
“You’re going to have to wait ‘til dinner. Don’t give me that look I’m not going to tell you what it is.”  
All while Ella was giving Erin her Valentine’s Day gifts, their phones were blowing up. Texts, tweets, comments, and a few phone calls from excited friends, all of them positive about how great they were going to be and how lucky their baby was. When Ella read them, she cried, Erin was thankful for all the positive comments and well wishes they received.   
Around lunch, Ella wandered into the their kitchen in search of something to eat. She opened the cabinets in search of her beloved, almost empty, jar of peanut butter. But instead, she found a brand new jar of crunchy peanut butter with a heart drawn on a sticky note. She grabbed it, and went to find Erin. Erin was in the other bedroom of their apartment that they turned into her art room, sketching. She straddled her, said thank you, and kissed her.   
Erin leaned back in her chair and smiled, “For what?”  
“The peanut butter and marrying me.”  
“Marrying you was the easiest choice I’ve ever had to make, the peanut butter on the other hand,” she teased, letting her hands settle on Ella’s hips.   
Ella put her hands on her little bump, “The baby also says he loves you.”  
Erin raised an eyebrow, “He?”  
Ella nodded, “Something inside me, probably the baby, tells me that he’s a he.”  
Erin set her hands on top of Ella’s, “See, I really think she’s a she. But also that she’s gonna be a goalkeeper.”  
Ella rolled her eyes, “You just want a girl.”  
“No, I want whatever this kid wants to be girl, boy, what have you. I love them.”  
“I know, but he’s gonna be a boy. I’m telling you now, get ready.”  
“We’ll see about that,” Erin whispered before kissing her.  
~  
The whole drive to the tapas restaurant where Erin planned for them to have dinner, Ella pestered her about what she got her. Despite her wife’s best efforts, Erin refused to say anything on the matter, “Don’t give me those eyes, Ella.”  
“Are they working?”  
“Yes,” she sighed, “But we’re almost there, so I’ll just stay quiet.”  
“Why are you doing this to me?” Ella asked, exasperated.  
“It’s a surprise!”  
“I’m carrying your child Erin, please, please, please just tell me what it is,” Ella begged.  
“Nope! Would you look at that, Mrs. McLeod! We’re here, you are seconds away from finding out what your gift is.”  
Ella was practically vibrating with excitement as she followed Erin in, “I hate when you do this to me!”  
“You’ll love me in, like, 3 seconds. I promise.”  
The host led them to a table, but there was somebody sitting there facing away from them. Ella looked at her wife, confused. “Who is that?”  
“Go see.”  
Ella walked a little faster to their table and saw her sister. “Wooze!” She yelled.  
“Sis!”  
Ella hugged her, “You’re here! Erin tortured me all day, but you’re here!”  
“I missed you,” Liza said. Ella began to sob, “What’s wrong?”  
“I missed you too,” she laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes, “I didn’t know you were coming.”  
“Sis, that’s the point of a surprise!”  
“You told me you were going to stay in and with Erik when I talked to you this morning!”  
“I lied Ella, I was in the airport. Erik is working.”  
Ella looked at Erin, “Thank you for this.”  
Erin kissed her temple, “I almost told you this morning. You’re the hardest person to keep secrets from.”  
They spent the rest of the evening talking about what they were going to do for the three days that Liza was in Vancouver and how their nieces and nephew were and how Ella was feeling.   
“I really loved your pictures this morning, they were really cute.”   
Ella looked down at her plate, “Thanks, I saw a picture similar to it a few years back and I thought that since we both play soccer, that it would work really well.”  
“And it did, everybody loved it. I’ve never in my life seen that much love on an instagram post,” Liza laughed.  
~

Liza rode home with them, and they set her up Erin’s art room on an air mattress. Erin went to bed soon after, but Ella stayed in Liza’s room. They talked for hours, about anything. Then, Liza noticed her twin’s eyelids looking heavy, “Why don’t you go to bed? It’s late.”  
“No,” Ella sighed sleepily, “I’m gonna stay with you. I can see Erin any time I want. I want to hang out with you.”  
“Oh, I remember there was a time when you wanted to spend every waking second with her,” Liza laughed, as Ella cuddled into her.  
“I still do, Wooze, but you live in Illinois and she brought you all the way here for me. I’m going to take every single second you’re here to hang out with you,” Ella started getting teary.  
“Aw, sis, don’t cry! I love you!”  
“I love you too,” she sniffed, “I can’t stop myself.”  
“It’s okay, you can sleep sis. You’re tired.”  
“I’m not tired,” she yawned, “I’m so ready to do stuff.”  
“The only thing you’re ready to do is go to sleep.”  
“I mean, if that’s what you wanna do…” she trailed off.  
“Good night Ella.”  
Ella mumbled something in response, but she was totally asleep.  
Ella spent the first night on the air mattress with Liza, but she vowed she never would again, it made her back hurt too much and she claimed that her sister snored. A claim that Liza denied up and down. Erin stayed out of that one, even though she was up in the middle of the night to let Max out and heard Liza snoring louder than anything she had ever heard, she thought it was funny to listen the sisters bicker about snoring.  
While Erin was training or doing business things, Liza and Ella explored Vancouver and went shopping. When the day came to take Liza to the airport, Ella didn’t want to do it. They pulled up to the drop off doors at the airport and got out, Ella hugged her sister, hard. “I’m going to miss you, Wooze."  
Liza rubbed her back, “I’m gonna miss you too, sis, but remember, you’re coming down for our birthday. It’s only a few weeks away.”  
They said their final goodbyes, and Ella held Erin’s hand as they watched Liza disappear into the crowd of people.  
~  
The ride back was quiet, Ella looked out the window and watched as the world flew by, occasionally getting teary because, apparently, that was her thing now.   
Noticing her wife was still upset, Erin reached over and squeezed her hand, "It's okay. I've got you. You can let it out if you need to, you don't have to be strong right now."  
With that, Ella began to sob. Erin pulled into a gas station and held her, "Do you want to talk about it?" Ella shook her head in Erin's chest, "Okay," she said rubbing her back, "We can stay here as long as you need."  
After several solid minutes of crying, Ella finally unburied her head from Erin's chest, kissed her, and said, "Thank you, I'm sorry I ruined your shirt."  
Erin looked down and saw two rather large wet spots in the center of her chest, she laughed and kissed her wife, and said sarcastically, "It's okay don't do it again."   
Ella smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, when Erin returned from training, she found Ella sitting on their couch with Max next to her looking at the book she bought for the baby. "What should the baby call us?"  
"Hello to you too, El."  
"No, Erin, I'm serious. What is the baby gonna call us?"  
"Some version of mom?"  
"Okay, but what? I'm trying to fill out the part of the book that’s about me and I don't know what to call myself. How am I supposed to do anything if I don’t know what I’m supposed to call myself?" Ella asked exasperated.  
Erin sat down next to her and put her head on her shoulder, "I think you should have it call you Gigantor. Much better than any kind of mom name. You look really cute when you’re stressed. But I really love Gigantor. I think it works really well for you."  
"And you can be Stinky," Ella said, pushing her off, "Please, for the love of god, go shower!"  
"I can't!" Erin said, wrapping her arms around Ella, "You're having a crisis and I need to support you!"  
Ella tried to wrestle out of Erin's grip, but she just held on tighter, "Please Erin!"  
"Nope!" At this point, Erin had her pinned down on the couch. Max jumped off the couch and did his best doggy glare at them. "Sorry bud."  
Ella was desperate to get her stinky wife off of her and into the shower, in a last ditch effort, she said, "Please! I will do anything you want!"  
Erin looked down into her eyes, it looked to Ella that she might actually be considering her offer, "Nah!" She laughed and started peppering her face with kisses, "I am here to help you out in your time of need!"  
She has Ella laughing now, "You know what I need, oh sweet wife of mine?"  
Erin stopped kissing her face, "What?"  
"I need you to shower!"  
"I'm not going without you!" She declared, picking Ella up bridal style and carrying her into the bathroom.  
"Erin Katrina McLeod put me down!" Ella demanded.  
"Never!" She said, closing the bathroom door with her foot, and kissing her wife more.  
Ella laughed and put her arms around Erin's neck, "You're a difficult woman."  
"Don't care!" Erin said kissing her one last time before setting her on the ground, "Now get in there before I have to drag you in there with me!"


	9. Chapter 9

When Erin woke up, she reached for Ella so they could cuddle, like they did every morning since they started living together, it was the best way, Erin thought, to start the day. But her spot was cold and empty. Max wandered up from the foot of their bed and set his head on her chest, at least he was there for a morning cuddle. Then Ella walked in, looking more beautiful than usual, even though she was still in her pajamas and had her hair in a bun on the top of her head. She crawled into bed next to her wife and Erin snuggled into her, "You look more perfect than I've ever seen you before," she said softly into Ella's neck.  
Ella kissed her temple, "You're sweet."  
"I know."  
"I made you birthday breakfast, I came in here to wake you up before it got cold but you make it really hard to not sit here all day and snuggle."  
"You made me breakfast?"  
"Of course I made you breakfast! What kind of wife would I be if I didn't?"   
"Still a pretty good one."  
"Thank you, honey," Ella smiled, taking Erin's hand and dragging her out of bed.  
"It's cold!" Erin protested, "I want to go back to bed!"  
"Nope."  
Erin grumbled.  
"I got up early, I slaved over a hot stove, barefoot and pregnant, you are going to eat your birthday breakfast and you're going to love it."  
She smiled, messing with Ella was one of her favorite things to do, "Of course,” she said following Ella into their kitchen.   
“Did you like the barefoot and pregnant bit?” she asked.  
“Yes,” she said leaning Ella against the counter and kissing her.  
Ella kissed her back before pulling away and saying, “No, after breakfast.”  
“You’re killin’ me Masar.”  
“I’m sorry, after breakfast, I promise, we can do whatever you want.”  
Before she woke Erin up, Ella set out two plates. One for Erin, with eggs and bacon, and the other for her, toast with peanut butter and a handful of berries. She woke up feeling a little sick and wanted to play it safe since they had plans--lunch at Erin’s parents with her sisters.  
They ate quietly, talking about what they were going to do for the day, and when Erin was done, Ella handed her a card, “What is this?”  
“It’s nothing, really,” Ella said, biting her lip.  
“You’re biting your lip, it’s something.”  
“Just open it already!”  
She opened the envelope and took the card out and opened it, and started reading:  
Wifey,  
Happy birthday! Thank you for loving me, thank you for teaching me, thank you for picking me up when I’m down, thank you for holding me, thank you for protecting me, thank you for taking care of me, thank you for your voice, thank you for your strength and your heart, thank you for marrying me. Thank you for teaching me that love always wins. Thank you. My world is a better place because you’re in it, the world is better because you’re in it. I am so grateful for February 26th, 1983 because it brought you. I’m so thankful that you are you. I don’t know where I would be if it were not for you. I’m the luckiest person on Earth because you’re mine. Words can not describe how much I love you and how thankful I am everyday for you. Happy birthday to the biggest blessing in my world.  
Love always and forever,  
El  
P.S. I can’t wait for the rest of forever with you and our little loves.  
She wiped the tears from her face, leaned over the table, and kissed Ella, “Thank you.”  
Ella wiped more tears from her wife’s cheeks, “Everything in that note is exactly how I feel.”  
Erin kissed her again, still crying, “I love you, so, so much.”  
“Hey, no tears. It’s your birthday.”  
“Oh, no, they’re happy tears,” she smiled at her.   
“Promise?”  
“Promise.”  
“Good, you wanna go get more happy?” Ella asked.  
“Absolutely.”  
~  
When they got to Erin's parents' house, their niece and nephew were waiting at the door.  
"Happy Birthday Aunt Erin!" They shouted, hugging her.   
"Thanks little ones!"  
Erin's mom wasn't far behind wishing her happy birthday before turning right to Ella, and asking her a thousand questions about how she was feeling, "I'm feeling really great, actually," she wasn't, she'd felt sick all day, "I think the morning sickness is totally gone," It wasn't, she was lying, she’d thrown up right before they left their apartment.  
"Oh good! I'm so glad! I remember when I was pregnant with the girls, I was sick all the time! It was awful, but it was totally worth it," then she went into a list of all these things that she thought helped morning sickness. Ella was never big on getting advice from people that she didn't ask for, but she knew Erin's mom meant well, so she listened politely and nodded.  
"Okay, mom," Erin cut her off, "that's enough."  
Cara peaked her head out from the kitchen, "Hey Erin! Dad made double chocolate cake!"  
Her dad's double chocolate cake her favorite, Erin tried to make it a couple of times but it never turned out quite the same as his. She knew there was a secret ingredient that he wasn't telling her about and she wanted to know, and she wasn't going to push it today but in the future she was to learn what the hell it was that made it so good, “Thanks, dad!” she said walking into the kitchen and giving him a hug.  
“Anything for my girl on her birthday!” He said kissing her temple.  
“Love you.”  
“Love you too, kid”  
As always, their niece and nephew did most of the talking. They talked about school and their little league soccer teams and then Lilly asked, “Auntie Erin, when is our new cousin coming?”   
“Not until the end of August, sweetie.”  
“Why can’t she come sooner?”  
“Well, they need to cook in Ella’s belly for a long time before they’re ready to come out and say hello to you,” she looked over at her wife who was sitting across from her and it was clear that she was trying to hold in her laughs. Erin looked at her, which only caused her to snort and almost choke on her food.   
“So not ‘til after we finish school?” Malcolm asked.  
“Yeah, bud, not ‘til the summer.”  
“We might even be in Houston, if he decides to come early.”  
Erin’s older sister held up her hand, “Wait a second. Houston? He?”  
Ella bit her lip, “Yeah, Houston. If she’s there, I’m there.”  
Erin nodded, “Obviously, we’re going to try to get back to Canada before they’re born, but if not we’re fine if they’re born in Houston. We looked into it and they would have dual citizenship either way because Ella’s an American.”  
“Okay, that’s all fine and well, but what is this about he/she?”  
Erin rolled her eyes, “Ella thinks it’s a boy.”  
“No. I know it’s a boy.”  
“Anyway, Ella is convinced that it’s a boy.”  
“I think it’s a girl!” Lilly shouted.  
“No! It’s a boy!” Malcolm yelled.  
"Kids, don't fight. We don't know what your new cousin is going to be," Megan said in an effort to calm them down, then looking at Erin and Ella, "We will love the baby regardless of whether or not it is a girl or a boy. Right kids?"  
They nodded,"Yes, mommy."  
“Thank you, now why don’t you two go play? I think Nana has some games in the living room for you.”  
They left the table and ran off talking the whole way about what game they were going to play first.   
Ella threw her head back, “I ate way too much,” she sighed before getting up and taking her plate to the kitchen, before heading over to where her niece and nephew were playing Chutes and Ladders. She always liked hanging out with them, she thought they were really cool kids and she sometimes even won when they played board games.   
After probably 3 rounds of Chutes and Ladders and a few games of Simon Says, Erin went over to Ella, leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Are you ready to go?”  
Ella nodded, “Listen monkeys, Auntie Erin and I have to go, but why don’t you ask your mom and dad if you can spend the night next weekend and we can play games and watch movies and eat all the junk food they won’t let you have.”  
Lilly grinned and leapt up to hug her, “Yeah!”  
They hugged her and Malcolm bye and said goodbye to the rest of their family and getting into their jeep and heading home.


	10. Chapter 10

Megan ended up agreeing to the sleep over, and dropped Malcolm and Lilly off after school. When Erin answered the door, they ran past her and into the apartment, “Hello little ones!”  
“Hey, I’m sorry they don’t have any manners,” Megan said hugging her sister.  
“It’s fine. They’re excited, we’re their favorite aunts anyway.”  
“You are but don’t tell Cara.”  
“Of course not! We have to let her live in delusion.”  
“So we talked about the how they are to behave and if they start acting up, just let me know and we’ll come get ‘em.”  
“I’m sure they’ll be perfect little angels!”  
“Yeah okay, please don’t feed pump them full of sugar before I pick them up.”  
Erin’s eyes got wide, and acted like she was offended, “I never do such things! It’s always Ella who gives them candy.”   
“I’m not sure I believe that,” Megan said before calling the kids back to the door to kiss them goodbye, “We’re going to behave ourselves, aren’t we?”  
“Yes mommy,” they responded.  
“Thank you,” she said, “I love you. I will see you guys tomorrow.”  
After the door closed, Erin asked if they wanted to go play with Max in the snow. They both said yes, so Erin bundled them up and they headed out.  
Ella went shopping just before Malcolm and Lilly got there, so when she returned she found them playing with Max. Whenever she saw Erin with kids her heart melted a little, because she was so amazing with them. She always thought she lucked out when she married Erin, but seeing her with kids made her feel even more so. She left them to play in the snow and went up to their apartment and unpacked her bags. She bought stuff for her pickle grilled cheese- their favorite, ice cream sundaes, a few games for them to play, and per Erin’s request- candy for tomorrow.   
When they came in, Lilly said that she was hungry, so Ella pulled out a stool and let Lilly stand next to her while she watched her make pickle grilled cheese, and Ella said, “What if we had a picnic in the living room?”  
Lilly’s eyes lit up, “Can we?”  
“Of course we can! Why don’t you take your plate and Malcolm’s plate out to the living room and I’ll bring mine and Auntie Erin’s.”  
“Okay!” She said reaching over the counter and taking the two plates carefully.  
After dinner, Erin cleaned up and Ella hung out with the kids, she helped them build a huge blanket fort that took up most of their living room and played a round of Uno before Erin got back. They let Malcolm and Lilly win a few rounds before they took it up a notch and won a handful of games before Malcolm and Lilly genuinely beat them. Since both Ella and Erin were extremely competitive, they were a bit irritated by the fact that they were beaten by kids, which the kids really thought was great. They laughed and laughed, so Erin and Ella played up their loss even more.  
Ella snuck off to make their sundaes, and came back to their blanket fort to see her wife tickling a very pink Malcolm with Lilly on her back, “Monkeys, I got you some ice cream!” They devoured the ice cream and got it all over their faces, she took a picture and posted it on instagram with the caption, “@emasar3: We’re the favorite aunts #blanketfortbuddies”   
They played games for a few hours before the kids asked if they could watch the movie that they brought, “Sure, but why don’t you two go put your pjs on before we start?”  
Malcolm and Lilly ran off and Erin put her head on Ella’s shoulder, and sighed, “They’re the best, but god they are tiring.”  
Ella ran her hand through her wife’s hair, “Come on, it’s not that bad. They’re so fun and they love you. You know when I got home, you guys were outside playing with Max in the snow and I couldn’t help but think of what’s it’s gonna be like with our kids.”  
“And did you get emotional?” Erin asked, looking up at her.  
“Are you new here? Of course I did!”  
Erin sat up and kissed her, softly, “I love you.”  
“I love you.”  
“And I love you, too, little one,” Erin said letting her hand come to rest on Ella’s still barely noticeable baby bump.   
Ella smiled really wide and put her hand on top of Erin’s before kissing her again. They were so in the moment that they didn’t notice Malcolm and Lilly reentering the blanket fort until they both started screaming, “Ew!” and covering their eyes. Erin hopped up and took them both in her arms and covering them in kisses, while they giggled, “One day it won’t be so ew! And we’re gonna make fun of you when you bring a boyfriend or a girlfriend home!” she said before letting them go.  
They got half way through Finding Nemo before both Lilly and Malcolm were asleep in their laps. Lilly was snuggled up in Ella’s lap, so Ella gently picked her up and carried her to their bedroom and laid her in the bed. Erin wasn’t far behind with Malcolm. After they tucked them into their bed they went back out to the living room and took down the blanket fort and cleaned up before they both sat on the couch.   
Ella put her head in Erin's lap, "I'm so tired, they really do take it out of you."  
"Why don't you go to bed?" She asked, playing with her wife's hair.  
"Well, there's two reasons: one there are two kids sleeping in our bed and two I like going to sleep with you near me. I think too much when you're not there with me."  
Erin thought for a second, "We can set up the air mattress in the art room and you can go to sleep and I can sketch for a little bit. Just give me a second to clean it up before you it in.”   
Ella nodded. She knew Erin usually kept her art room a mess, but what she didn’t know that Erin had a secret project that she was working on and as long as she did an okay job keeping it a secret, Ella wouldn’t pester her about what it was.   
Once Erin cleared up her secret project, she called Ella in. Along with the air mattress, she brought the baby book. They got the bed all set up and Ella crawled in while her wife sat at her desk with a her sketch book open to a blank page.   
~  
Ella began writing the story of how she met Erin in the book as she watched her sketch at her desk. Erin was so effortlessly beautiful and perfect that it was hard for her to stop watching so she could write, but she managed to do it.  
Little love,   
I’m going to tell you the story of how I met your mom, but I need you to know one thing before I start. I love you so, so, so much. Your mom love you so much too. We loved you from the moment we knew you were coming to us. I thank God everyday for blessing me with you and your mom.  
I’m sure you already know, we met because of soccer. We met in 2013. In Chicago, playing soccer. I remember the first time I saw her was at practice. She was talking to your Aunt Carm, and she was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen in my whole life. She still is. But in the beginning, I was afraid to love her. When I was younger I thought it was wrong to love another woman, but I was wrong gender doesn’t matter, you fall in love with a person’s soul. God loves us no matter who we love, little love. Your mom taught me that. She’s taught me a lot of things that I hope she teaches you. To be kind, to love with your whole heart, to be brave, to live your life in truth. But when I let go of all the things that were holding me back from loving her with everything that I have, she was the best thing to ever happen to me.   
You and I are so lucky to have somebody like her in our lives. She is special.   
There’s just one more thing I want you to know before I finish this letter, you are so loved. You were made with nothing but love. There’s nothing more on this Earth that I wanted than to be your mom.  
Love,  
Mom  
~  
The next morning, Malcolm and Lilly came running into their makeshift bedroom bright and early, and threw themselves on the bed between a still half asleep Ella and a fully asleep Erin. “Good morning monkeys,” Ella said yawning.   
“Morning Ella!” Lilly smiled, her hair sticking up in all different directions.  
Malcolm, on the other hand, cuddled right up to Erin and promptly fell asleep.  
Ella grinned to herself, she had a plan, “Why don’t we go to the kitchen?”  
Lilly nodded and followed Ella out, ever since they met, they had always been partners in crime. Lilly thought Ella was the coolest thing since sliced bread and she was stuck to her like glue at all times.  
“Here’s what we’re gonna do,” she said going into the cabinets and grabbing two pots and wooden spoons, “We’re gonna take these into the room and make a lot of noise and wake your brother and Auntie Erin up.”  
Lilly beamed and nodded.   
“But we have to be really quiet until we get into the room, okay? Tip toes.” Ella tiptoed into the room with Lilly right behind her and gave her the signal that it was okay to hit the pots and make as much noise as she possibly could. “Good morning!” Ella yelled.  
Erin jumped so far off the bed that she nearly fell off and screamed. Malcolm jumped a little, but he was in hysterics when he realized Erin had fallen off the bed.  
“Whose idea was that?” Erin asked. Lilly pointed at Ella, "One day, Mrs. McLeod, one day," she said narrowing her eyes at her wife.  
Ella laughed and kissed her good morning, Lilly and Malcolm both squealed and ran out of the room, "We should probably make them breakfast."  
"Pancakes?"   
Ella nodded and they headed to the kitchen to make pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse. The kids loved it, and after they cleaned up breakfast they bundled up and went out to play in the snow. Once their cheeks were all red they went in and Erin made hot chocolate and gave them candy. She always have them candy before she sent them home because they would be bouncing off the walls and it drove Megan and her husband nuts and she thought it was hysterical when she got a call from her sister asking what the hell she fed her kids.   
Finally, the time came for Megan to come pick Malcolm and Lilly up, they hugged Erin bye and then went to the door where Ella and their mom were waiting.  
"Did they behave themselves?"  
"They were perfect," Ella answered rubbing the top of Malcolm's head.  
"Did you give them candy?"  
Ella laughed, "I didn't, your sister gave them quite a lot."  
Megan rolled her eyes, "I'm going to get her back one day. Okay thing one and thing two, you ready?"  
They both shook their heads no, Ella knelt down in front of them, "I had so much fun. We'll have another sleepover soon, okay?" She hugged them both and they left following slowly behind their mom.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is very short, I know. I wanted to get something out because I moved back to college today. Which means I'll likely to have a little less time to write, I apologize in advance in the event that I update less regularly from here on.

Ella was packing clothes for their move to Houston when she felt it. It felt like butterflies, she narrowed her eyebrows and stopped what she was doing and sat down on the floor of their closet. She put her hand on her belly and started talking to the baby, “Hey little love, are you doing good in there? We’re leaving Canada for a little bit, but we’re hopefully gonna be back before you’re here. Maybe not. You’re the only one who knows. But either way, I hope that’s good with you. You’re gonna love Houston, the food is so good and our teammates, well your mom’s teammates, they used to be mine, are the best.” She felt the butterflies again, “I’m excited too.”  
Erin was on her way to ask her wife a question, but she paused when she heard her talking. Ella talked to the baby all the time. They both did. But this was different, Ella never really held conversations with it. Then she walked to where she could see into their closet, her wife was sitting on the floor, next to a box of clothes, hand on her bump, smiling. “Did you guys have a good chat?”  
“We did, I felt him kick,” Erin opened her mouth to tell her that they didn’t even know if the baby was a he, “Or she. Anyway, they kicked, and it’s so weird. It’s like when you get the butterflies.” she smiled proudly, standing up and wrapping her arms around Erin’s neck and kissing her.  
“This is insane,” she said letting her hands come to rest on Ella’s belly, “Do you think I could feel them? You know, from the outside?”  
Ella shrugged, “I’m not sure, maybe. We can try, but in the meantime, we should pack. Our flight leaves in two days and we have to send all this stuff to Houston.” Ella’s birthday was in a week and they planned to go to Illinois between Vancouver and Houston to visit her family for her birthday.  
They spent the whole day packing their things into boxes to send to Houston. Both put a good amount of their things into the goodwill pile They were laying in bed all cuddled up when Ella felt it again. She quickly took Erin's from around her and placed them where she felt the baby moving. Erin looked at her and frowned, "Nothing."  
Ella put their foreheads together, "It's okay," she whispered, "One day soon, it'll happen, I promise."  
She nodded and snuggled further into her wife before they both fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

They had the first flight to Chicago, which meant they had to be up early, which was hard for both of them. Erin wasn't much of a morning person and Ella couldn't fall asleep because she was too excited to see her family. They sleepily went about getting ready and getting Max all good to fly before getting into the taxi they called. Erin bought the worst airport coffee of her life once they got through airport security so she could try to stay up while they waited for their flight. Ella on the other hand was like a zombie, when they got to their gate they sat down, Ella put her head on her wife's shoulder and immediately fell asleep.  
Erin woke her up when it was time for them to board, they took their seats and Ella put her head back on Erin's shoulder, grabbed her hand and started to doze off. The plane began to taxi toward the runway when Ella jumped; she took Erin's hand and set it on her bump. "Still nothing."  
"It's still moving! Maybe it's because of the sweatshirt," Ella was wearing one of Erin's old, thick, Penn State hoodies. She put Erin's hand under the sweatshirt and over the thin tshirt she was wearing underneath it, bit her lip and looked at her with hopeful eyes.  
"Nothing babe." Ella sighed and put her head back on Erin's shoulder.   
They were sitting next to a man who looked to be in his mid to late 20s and he gave them the side eye for the first hour of the flight. Finally, Erin had enough of it. "Is there something wrong sir?"  
Ella put her hand on her thigh, "Erin-"  
"No Ella, this guy has been giving us the side eye since the moment he sat down. I would like to know what exactly it's about."  
"Well the bible says-"  
"I'm not sure which part of the bible you're about to use to justify your blatant homophobia but trust me when I say that I've heard them all and they're all bs."  
“The bible says that you two are going to hell.”  
“Well, we’ll meet you there then, I guess,” Erin said before turning her back to him and looking out the window.  
"Jesus did not give his life for you two to live that lifestyle, and to bring a child into it is even worse" he sneered.  
That was enough for Ella, “You’re right. Jesus died so I could live. So I could fulfill my life’s purpose and if loving her helps me do that then thank God. She has taught me more about Jesus and God than any preacher has. I know you have sinned, so you have no right to be throwing stones at us for living in our light. I lived in the dark for way too long for some guy on a plane to think that he has the right to tell me how to live my life. I know that one day, when my time has come, I will have done everything I could to serve him the best I could. His greatest gift to us is love and if you’re too blind to see that, then I don’t think you have the right to judge anybody,” she sat back in her window seat and balled her hands into fists in her lap.   
The man stared at the pair, slackjawed, before calling a flight attendant and asking to be moved. Ella was fuming, there was nothing that she hated more than people telling her that how she was living her life was wrong. Before the flight attendant found somebody to replace the nasty man in the seat next to Erin, Ella left to go to the bathroom. The flight attendant returned to their seat with an elderly woman with kind eyes. She asked Erin what was wrong, and she explained. Then the lady said something Erin wasn’t really expecting, “I heard what that man said to you. All those idiots that use God or some other bullshit to make themselves feel okay with being hateful are idiots, honey. Real idiots.” Erin nodded, the lady introduced herself as Gloria and asked Erin about herself. She was in the middle of explaining what exactly she did for a living when Ella returned to their seats. Gloria introduced herself and asked about what Ella did and what was bringing them to Chicago. “You know, my partner, Beth, was Canadian. We were gonna make it official, but she passed right before Canada made it legal,” they offered their condolences, but Gloria wasn’t having any of it, “We had a good time while she was alive, we saw the world, and we lived. I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” she smiled to herself, “Enough about me though, I want to hear about you two.”  
They went through their whole story, meeting in Chicago, falling in love, moving to Houston, then to Canada, Ella had to go back to Houston and leave Erin in Canada so she could train for the World Cup, to their ‘shotgun’ wedding, and playing together again as a married couple, to Ella’s official retirement from pro soccer when they decided it was time to have a family, to her actually getting pregnant.  
“What you two have is what Beth and I spent our whole lives working for and I’m so grateful that you have what we couldn’t.”  
Erin smiled at her, “That means a lot. Really, thank you.”  
“So tell me about this baby of yours. Boy? Girl? When are you due?”  
“We don’t know yet. I’m pretty sure it’s a boy though. I just feel it, I can’t explain it. I’m due in late August.”  
“Oh, honey that’s so great!” Gloria was genuinely excited, “Do you guys have any names picked out?”  
Ella and Erin looked at each other, “We honestly haven’t even talked about them.”  
“I’m sure you’ll come up with a really great one.”  
Ella nodded. They spent the rest of their flight talking to Gloria about Beth and all the things that they planned on doing while they were in Chicago. As they got off the flight, Gloria wished them the best and told them that she would absolutely be tuning into Houston’s games.   
They made their way through the airport toward baggage claim where Ella’s older sister was waiting for them. When they made eye contact, Ella picked up her pace until she practically ran into her, “Hey sis!”  
Ella hugged her tight, “I missed you.”  
Seredy smiled, “I missed you too!” She broke the hug and stepped back to look at her sister, “Look at you though! You look so great!”   
“I’m pretty sure I look like a pregnant lady who hasn’t slept in years, but thanks for your kindness.”  
Erin returned with their luggage and greeted Seredy, who led them out to her SUV, “The girls are so excited to see you guys. They’ve asked when you were going to get here for the last, like, two weeks. Oh, and Cambria has some name suggestions for her new cousin. You’ll have to ask her about those when we get home. She kind of thinks that you’re going to walk in the house with a new baby for her and Anaiah to play with. Anaiah gets it a little better than Cambria does, she knows that Aunt Ella has a baby in her belly. She has lots of questions about it.”  
“Great!” Ella said, “We love questions, don’t we Erin?” She looked in the back seat and saw her wife was asleep. She reached back and gently hit her knee, which woke her up, “We love answering the questions, right?”  
“Oh yeah sure,” she agreed before falling back to sleep.  
When they walked in the door to Seredy’s house, Anaiah and Cambria immediately jumped on them, “Hi little ones!” Ella said kissing them, “I missed you so so so much!”  
Cambria looked up at her aunt with her big brown eyes and said, “Auntie Ella, where’s our new cousin?”  
Seredy gave her sister a look that said ‘I told you’, and Ella bit her lip, “They’re not ready to come and play with you guys yet. They’re still in my belly. They baby’s only this big,” she said holding her hands a few inches apart.  
Both the girls’ eyes got wide, “The baby’s only that big?” Ella nodded. Then the girls turned their attention to Erin, “Auntie Erin do you wanna play dolls with us?”  
“I absolutely do!”   
Anaiah and Cambria dragged Erin off to the living room where their dolls were. Seredy took Ella into the kitchen and made tea before sitting her down and giving her the third degree about her pregnancy and how she was feeling and how Erin was treating her and the move to Houston.   
“When do you find out if it’s a girl or a boy?” Seredy asked, taking Ella’s cup and putting it in the sink.  
“Two weeks. I know it’s a boy, this whole thing is just to prove to Erin that I’m right.”  
“I was sure Anaiah was gonna be a boy but look at her now, she’s the girliest girl ever. I know you like to be right, Ella, but just be prepared in case you are wrong.”   
“No, Ser, I really think I’m right. Like since the moment I found out I was pregnant I've been feeling the boy vibes.”  
She laughed, “Sure, Ella.”  
“Don’t doubt me Ser, I know I’m right!”  
“Tell me in two weeks,” she said.   
Anaiah ran in, “Mommy, do I still have soccer practice today?”  
“Yes you do.”  
“Can Auntie Ella and Auntie Erin come?”  
“Maybe if you ask nicely they will.”  
Anaiah ran over to her aunt and looked up at her, “Auntie Ella, will you pretty please come to soccer practice tonight?”  
“I will for sure come to your soccer practice.”  
“Will Auntie Erin?”   
“Why don’t we go ask her?”  
“Okay!” Anaiah exclaimed, grabbing Ella’s hand and dragging her to the living room where Erin and Cambria were still playing dolls. “Auntie Erin, will you come to soccer practice with me and Auntie Ella tonight?”  
“I would love to!”   
“Yay!” She cheered leaping into Erin’s lap, “Thank you!”  
In the car on the way to Anaiah’s practice, Seredy said, “She’s always talking about how cool her aunts are and how, these are her words, ‘she wants to be a goalie just like Aunt Erin, but for America and not Canada’.”  
Erin smiled, "I'm sure you will be, bug. Maybe we can practice your goalkeeping skills later tonight!"  
Anaiah nodded, and then grabbed Erin's hand and ran over to her team to show them her aunt and tell them all about how cool she was. Ella and Seredy sat on a blanket on the side of the field and watched as all the little girls circled around Erin while she talked about hard work and doing their best.  
"You know, she's gonna be a really good mom, sis," Seredy said, as Erin gave the girls high fives before making her way back.  
"I know, she's so great with kids, I got really lucky."  
The three sat and watched Anaiah run around with a soccer ball and chase after her teammates until practice was over and Anaiah ran over and asked asked if Erin would practice goal keeping with her. Erin agreed, and asked if Ella wanted to take some shots on them.   
"Sure, but you're gonna have to help me up, I'm kind of stuck here."  
Erin helped her up and they held hands as they walked over to the goal. The sun was setting and the sky was beautiful and the two looked so happy, that Seredy had to take a picture. Their backs were to the camera but Ella was looking at Erin and laughing at something she said. She sent it to her younger sister and her phone, which she left on the blanket lit up. She saw her lock screen was a picture of Erin holding an ultrasound picture, smiling. Seredy had always thought her sister in law was an amazing person and perfect for Ella, but over the last few days she was beginning to realize just how right she was. Erin treated her like gold and when Ella spoke she watched her like she was magic.The way they were with each other, it was like they had their own secret language that only they spoke.   
Meanwhile, on the field, Erin was explaining to Anaiah what being a goalkeeper was like, "When you're a goalie you've gotta be brave, can you do that?" Anaiah nodded, "Okay are you ready because Auntie Ella likes to make things hard for us goalkeepers to save," Anaiah nodded again, "Remember how what I told you?" She smiled and nodded, "Okay, go Ella."   
Ella kicked the ball, softly and low enough for Anaiah to easily save it and when she did, she jumped up and down, "I did it! I saved it!"  
"That was so great!" Erin cheered, "I bet you could do it again!"  
Ella made her shot a little more difficult for Anaiah to save, but she still save it, "Wow Naiah! You're already as good as Auntie Erin! Wanna see her try to save one?"  
"Yes!"  
Ella smirked at her wife, as she walked over to take her spot in front of the goal, "Don't give me that look, El."  
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"  
"Liar."  
Ella giggled, "Okay sure, are you ready?"  
Erin had her game face on, "You bet your sweet butt I am. Naiah's gonna totally think that I'm the cool aunt after this one."  
Ella took her shot low and to the left, Erin jumped high and to the right, the ball hit the net and Anaiah started cheering. Ella ran around the field pumping her fists in victory. Erin frowned at her, Ella felt a little bad for milking it, so she ran over to her wife and kissed her, “I had to keep the cool aunt status, sorry.”  
Erin looked down at her, “I let that go in.”  
“No way. I know you would never let anything cross that line. Even if it was from your pregnant wife,” she smiled smugly at her, “But good try hun.”  
Anaiah pulled on Ella’s sleeve, “Mommy says we have to go home now.”   
“Okay, hold our hands,” Ella said offering her hand to her.  
Anaiah took both of their hands and walked back to the car. They picked her up and swung her forward every couple of steps, “Thank you for coming. You’re the coolest aunts ever.”


	13. Chapter 13

On the morning of her birthday, Ella woke up before Erin. She went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth before crawling back into bed and looking at twitter. After about 20 minutes of lying still, she felt the baby moving. She put her hand on her belly to see if she could feel it on the outside before waking Erin. After nearly a week of grabbing Erin’s hand and her not feeling anything she had started to check for herself before getting her wife’s hopes up. But this time was different, she felt the baby kicking at her hand. “Erin!” She whispered, shaking her.  
“Huh?” she asked sleepily, “Is something wrong?”  
“No, the baby’s moving, give me your hand.”  
Erin rubbed her eyes with one hand, and gave Ella the other. Ella held her hand on her belly for a few seconds before she felt the baby kicking again, it was stronger this time, she knew Erin felt it. Erin’s eyes went wide, “Woah!”  
“I know!”  
“That’s so crazy!” Erin said moving to get out of bed.  
“I know, wait, keep your hand there. It’s gonna kick again.”  
“But I’m getting your birthday card! I’ll be back in like two seconds."  
"No," she said holding tight to Erin's hand, "I want you to stay here, hold me."  
Ella was giving her a look that she could never say no to, so she stayed. Ella put her head on her chest and the baby kept moving. She set Erin's hand back on her belly, the baby gave a few good strong kicks before going still again, "This is unreal, I cannot believe that we're actually gonna have a baby."  
"I'm so excited, like there's gonna be a little McLeod running around."  
"It's gonna be so cool. I can't wait until they're old enough so you can bring them to the games and they can have their little McLeod jersey and be super cute and everything."  
"And when you get to the World Cup and we come down to see you they're probably gonna take pictures and call them a 'young fan' but not actually your kid."  
Erin laughed, "Like that picture of when you kissed me after the round of 16 and they called you a fan."  
Ella nodded.  
Erin kissed her temple and got out of bed to grab Ella's birthday card. Ella sat up in the bed and watched as Erin dug through her backpack. Eventually she found it, sat in the bed so she was facing her wife, and handed her the envelope. In typical Erin style, the card had a really bad joke about getting old. But inside, she had written a note:  
_Happy Birthday to my beautiful wifey!_  
 _Congratulations on making it another year around the sun. You really are the most remarkable woman I have ever met and it's been one of my greatest joys in life to know you. Getting to wake up with you (almost) every morning is a dream come true. I’m so proud to call you my wife that even after all this time all I wanna do is talk about what a catch you are and how happy and blessed I am to love you. I know you always say that I’m your rock, but you are mine a thousand times over. My world is more colorful with you in it and my life is more adventurous because of you. There is not a single person I would rather do life with than you. Thank you for putting up with my bad jokes and telling me when I need to wash my hair._  
 _All the love in the world,_  
 _E_  
Ella wiped her eyes before leaning forward to kiss Erin, “Thank you.”  
“I got you a present, but it’s in Houston.”  
“You didn’t have to get me anything!”  
“I know, but it’s less for you and more for this one,” she said putting her hand on Ella’s bump, “I got you a little something too.”  
She reached behind her back and pulled out a little box, “Erin-”  
“It’s not much,” she said as she held out the box for Ella to take. Ella opened the box and saw a small silver band with little infinity signs woven together, “It’s cheeseball, I know, but you know infinity is forever and that’s how long I’m going to love you.”  
Ella kissed her once again, "It is pretty cheeseball I love it."  
"We should go downstairs before I give into the urge to do dirty things to you."  
"Erin Katrina!"  
"When we get to Houston, I'm gonna give you something to yell about."  
"Okay!" She said before hopping out of bed and leaving the room.  
Everybody was already awake when Ella came downstairs, Cambria was the first to run over to her aunt and wish her happy birthday. Anaiah wasn't far behind hugging her and saying, "Happy Birthday Auntie Ella!" And they took each of Ella's hands and pulled her into the kitchen to show her the cards and signs they had made for her birthday.  
"Wow!" Ella said, "These cards are great! I'm going to keep them and hang them on our fridge in Houston."  
Both the girls eyes lit up, "Really?"  
"Absolutely! We need some stuff to decorate our house with! You guys should make us some more before we leave," She suggested and with that they ran off to go draw.  
“Happy Birthday, sis,” Seredy said giving her sister a hug, “I made the girls pancakes, if you want some. Where’s Erin?”  
“I’ll take a few. I think she’s still upstairs. I woke her up like a half an hour ago and we had a good little talk. She felt the baby for the first time this morning.”  
“She did?”  
“Yeah,” Ella smiled, “It’s so cool, ya know, to see her reaction.”  
“I’m so glad this is happening for you, I know how long you’ve wanted kids.”  
“It’s kind of weird though, like, soon there’s gonna be another little person on this earth that we made. What if we screw it up?”  
“You won’t screw it up. You and Erin are probably more together than most people, I wouldn’t even worry about that. Mom and Dad were pretty messed up and we ended up alright.”  
“I guess you’re right, but I can’t really stop myself from worrying.”  
“Aw, sis it’ll be fine,” Seredy said, hugging her, “I love you.”  
Ella smiled, “Love you too.”  
~  
When Ella left, Erin grabbed the baby book and wrote a letter in her part of the ‘love letters’ section:  
_Little love,_  
 _Even though you’re (technically) not alive yet, I love you so much. Your mom loves you so much too, she’s a pretty great lady. I’m sure that by the time you get to read this, you probably already know how great she is; but there’s a few things that I want you to know about what your mom has taught me._  
 _Your mom is easily the bravest person either of us will probably ever meet. I thought I knew what brave was before I met her, but your mom is the definition of brave just by being herself. She singlehandedly changed my life in the best ways. She taught me true strength and bravery (all things that I hope you learn from her). She inspires me to be a better person every single day. Another thing about her, she’s pretty funny. She makes me laugh everyday._  
 _I hope you get her laugh and her love of life and her kind heart._  
 _Love,_  
 _Mom (or whatever you end up choosing to call me)_


	14. Chapter 14

Later that day, they went over to Ella's mom's house and had dinner with her whole family. During dinner they told stories about Ella and Liza when they were kids and all the embarrassing things that came along with it. Erin loved hearing embarrassing stories about Ella because she always got a little bit flustered and her cheeks always turned bright red and she thought it was cute.   
After they finished eating, Ella was sitting in the living room with Liza watching their nieces play. Anaiah and Cambria were trying to get Grey to play dolls with them, but it wasn’t working. Grey was more interested in throwing them and laughing when the older girls got mad at her.   
"Wooze, do you wanna see something cool?"  
"Sure."  
"Give me your hand."  
"What?"  
"Give me your hand, Liza."  
Liza raised one eyebrow, "Okay?" She said, holding her hand out to her twin.  
She set her sister's hand on her belly, "Hang on, he just stopped."  
"He?"  
"Well I think it's a he, I'll know for sure in a week and a half. But the kid's been kicking all through dinner."  
"What does Erin think?"  
"She says she thinks it's a girl, but she uses 'it' more than anything. I think she's doing it more to bug me because she thinks she's funny."  
"Or maybe she thinks it's a girl and she uses it just in case the baby happens to be a boy."  
"I don't know."  
"What are you going to do with a boy? I mean, yeah, we grew up with Ty, but he's older than us."  
"I don't know. We'll figure it out."  
"Sis, boys pee all over the place. It's like a fire house!"  
"Wooze you're gonna kill me before I actually have this kid and boys don’t pee all over the place. How would you know anyway?"  
"Erik has nephews, sis, I’ve seen people get peed on many a time. But think about it! Look at them!" She said gesturing toward their nieces, Grey was still throwing dolls while Anaiah and Cambria were trying to get her to stop, "They're so cute, and they have dolls, and they like dress up, and princesses! Ella, I want another niece!"  
"No, Wooze, you're gonna love this kid no matter if it's a girl or a boy."  
"I know that! I'm just saying that I love nieces!"  
Just then, Ella felt the baby kick again, "Wooze!" She smiled, moving her sister's hand to the other side of her belly.  
Liza gasped, "Oh my gosh! Sis, that was a girl’s kickl. I've felt that kick too many from her mother."  
"Yeah sure," she turned her attention to her nieces, who were still trying to get Grey to play nicely with the dolls, "Maybe you guys should go outside and teach her how to play soccer? That might be more of her thing."  
"Will you come with us?" Anaiah asked.  
"I will, but I can't really play with you. Maybe Auntie Liza will if you ask nicely."  
"Auntie Liza, will you come play soccer with us?"  
"Yes, but I'm not as good as Auntie Ella."  
"That's okay!" Anaiah said grabbing her aunt's hand and dragging her to the door.  
Cambria stayed back and played quietly with her doll until Ella knelt down in front of her, and said, "Come on cutie, let's go outside."  
Cambria looked up at her, "I don't like playing soccer that much."  
"That's okay, do you wanna go outside and sit on the patio with me? We can watch them, your doll can come too."  
She nodded and lifted her arms up so that Ella could pick her up.  
Outside, Grey was running around while Anaiah was trying to get her to listen to her as she explained the rules of soccer.  
Cambria sat on Ella's lap with her head on her shoulder while they watched Anaiah struggle with Grey. They giggled at Anaiah’s struggles until Erin stepped outside and took the seat next to her wife, “Your brother says we should name it after him.”  
“Absolutely not,” Ella laughed.  
“I mean Tyson’s not a bad name, you know, if we do end up having a boy.”  
“It’s not but if he wants to have more kids maybe he can talk Megan into naming it after him. Plus, I don’t think I like the way Tyson McLeod sounds.”  
Cambria looked at Erin and said, “If the baby’s a girl you should name her Elsa. Or Anna. Like the princesses from Frozen. That’s my favorite movie.”  
“Maybe we will. I like Anna, what do you think, El?”  
“I like it, but I think we have to talk about it a little more, though.”  
“Okay,” the little girl said, putting her head back on Ella’s shoulder and Ella ran her fingers through her hair.  
Then, Ella felt the baby moving again, "Hey, Bria, put your hand right here," she said pointing at her belly. Knowing that something was going to happen, Erin started recording Ella and her niece to show her later.  
Cambria put her hand where Ella was pointing and she jumped, "What was that?"  
"It was the baby saying hello."  
Cambria smiled and leaned close to the bump, "Hello baby, I love you."  
The baby kicked again, “They love you too,” Ella smiled.  
Cambria kissed Ella's belly and put her head back on her aunt's shoulder.   
Ella smiled over at Erin, who reached over and took her hand, "Do you think I should go save your sister? She doesn't look like she's having the best time out there."  
"Nah, stay here with us. We're the cool ones anyway, right Bria?"  
Cambria gave a very enthusiastic, "Yes!"   
Erin smiled and squeezed Ella’s hand before letting go.   
They sat in silence for a little while, watching Liza chase Anaiah and Grey around the back yard. Until Tyson stuck his head out the door and said, “Hey Els, Mom wants you. She said just you, not Erin. I’m not sure what she wants.”  
Ella shrugged and looked over at Erin, “Sorry, hun.”  
“It’s fine, maybe Cambria will sit with me,” The little girl jumped at her offer, and jumped out of Ella’s lap and into Erin’s.  
On her way in she passed Tyson and whispered, “Please go save our sister, your daughter is going to drive her to an early grave.”  
Tyson laughed, “She’ll be fine. It’s good practice for whenever she and Erik finally decide to have kids.”   
Ella rolled her eyes and walked inside, “Hey Mom, where are you?” she called.  
“I’m upstairs, sweetie.”  
She climbed the steps and found her mom sitting on the edge of her bed with a plain cardboard box next to her, “What’s up?”  
She patted the spot next to her, “Sit, honey.”  
Ella raised an eyebrow, “Are you going to die or something? Should I be concerned?”  
Her mom laughed, “Oh goodness, no! I’m healthy as a horse. Can’t a mother ask to spend a few minutes with her daughter without her thinking there’s something wrong?”  
“Ma, the last time you asked me specifically to come by myself somewhere, Grandpa died.”   
“Ella, just sit, please, nobody is going to die,” she sighed.  
“Good, now what’s up?”  
Ella’s mom studied her face, “You’re so beautiful.”  
She was still very confused about what exactly her mom wanted, “Thanks.”  
“Sometimes I still can’t believe that I have four of the most amazing kids. I don’t know what did to be so lucky.”  
“Mom, what are you talking about?”  
She put a hand to Ella’s cheek, “Sweetheart, you’re having a baby.”  
“I know.”  
“I am so proud of you. You are going to be such an amazing mom. So is Erin.”  
“Thank you.”  
“I never had to worry about you. I always knew you would be okay, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. I don’t know where it came from between your father and I but I’m so thankful that you do. When you brought that boy home for the first time, I was a little worried, and I wondered for a little bit if maybe your head wasn’t as good as I thought it was. He was not a good person.”  
“Mom, please can we not talk about him?” Ella didn’t like to talk much about him, she had moved on and he still spewed what she now believed was hate and there was no room in her heart for that.  
“I’m sorry, sweetie, I’m almost done. He was trying to fix you, but you were never really broken, when you got rid of him we were all really happy , your brother especially. And then you brought Erin home, and we knew she was it for you probably before you did and we were so happy. She is just such a good person she has such a kind soul. She never tried to fix you, she loves you for who you are, I see it every time I see the two of you together. And now you’re bringing another little person into the world and I am so thrilled for you. Nobody deserves this more than you girls.”  
“Thanks,” Ella said quietly, it was rare that her mom was openly emotional, and watching her made her a little emotional.  
She turned to the box, and handed it to Ella, “I made something for the baby because Masar babies come early and I want them to have this in case I don’t make it to Houston before they’re born.”  
Ella opened the box and pulled out a soft mint green knitted blanket, her eyes started to well over, “Thank you so much.”  
Her mom leaned over to hug her, “You’re so welcome, sweetheart. I wish you knew what the baby was going to be so I could’ve made one that was the right color.”  
Ella laughed, “I don’t think we’re all that worried about that kind of thing, I don’t think Erin’s going to let me dress the baby in pink ever, even if it’s a girl. This is perfect.”  
“She’ll come around, they all do. I’m glad you like it.”  
“Mom, when you say that Masar babies come early, how early do you mean?” Ella asked hesitantly.  
“All of you were born almost three weeks before you were supposed to be. Which is why I know that that baby is going to be born in Houston and not Vancouver.”  
Ella sighed, “I think it’s fine if the baby’s born in Houston, it’s probably better that way so I won’t be gigantic when we fly back, but it’s born that early, Erin might not be there. The last few weeks of the season she’s supposed to be traveling. What am I supposed to do if she’s not there?”  
“She’ll be there, you know her, she wouldn’t miss that for the world.”  
“But what if she doesn’t make it back in time?” Ella asked biting her lip.  
“Sweetie, don’t worry about something that isn’t going to happen. Erin will be there when the baby’s born.”  
“I know, I’m just scared about her not making it back in time.”  
“There’s nothing to be worried about, everything is going to turn out fine,” she said, kissing her daughter’s temple.  
“I know,” Ella sighed.  
“C’mon, there’s a cake downstairs with your name on it.”  
After a terrible rendition of happy birthday and some cake, Erin and Ella piled into the car with their nieces and Seredy. Soon after pulling out of the driveway, Erin fell asleep with her head on her wife’s shoulder, snoring softly.


	15. Chapter 15

After a very tearful goodbye from their family at the airport, Erin and Ella were finally on their way to Houston for the summer. Kealia and Melissa met them with a sign that just said ‘Max McLeod’.   
“We’re here for the dog,” Kealia said, “You two-uh- and a half are gonna have to find another way back.”  
“Max will not travel without me,” Erin said, stepping forward, “He needs me, Ella I guess you’re gonna have to get a ride from somebody or walk home.”  
Ella raised one eyebrow at her, “You’re gonna leave me, the woman carrying your child at the airport?”  
Kealia sighed dramatically, “I suppose we could take the pregnant lady home too. Don’t want to make her walk too far.”  
“You’re so kind,” Ella said sarcastically.  
“All that we request in return is quality Little McLeod time when they get here.”  
“Sure. You can have all the Little McLeod time you want,” Ella said smiling, letting her hand come to rest on her bump. It was the first time somebody had called the baby ‘Little McLeod’ and it made her happy.   
Kealia and Melissa high fived, “That was what we came here for!”  
“Not because you missed us?” Erin asked as they walked to the car.  
“Or because we put up with your shit all the time?”  
“Well, I guess you could say that we missed you, but it has nothing to do with you putting up with us, you do that because you love us” Melissa said. They spent the trip back to their apartments talking about their off seasons, Kaelia went to play in Australia and Mel to Norway. K said she met a guy while she was in Australia. Ella made sure to ask her as many awkward and uncomfortable questions as possible, so that she knew what it was like when she asked weird questions of Ella.  
Eventually, the four pulled into the apartment’s parking garage and got out. They had rented a two bedroom apartment in the same complex as most of the rest of the team, so K and Mel walked them to their door. They reminded them to not be too loud when doing certain activities because the walls were thin and everybody could hear everything. But that didn’t stop Erin from taking her wife straight to their bedroom making sure that she was extra loud when giving Ella the other part of her birthday gift.   
After spending a few hours napping, Ella finally got up and looked around their new home. It was small, but it was not nearly as small as the studio they lived in during the World Cup when they had just gotten married. She loved that apartment, but at least in this place, there was more than one room. She went to the second, still empty, bedroom and sat down on the floor with her back to the door, “Hey little love, we’re in Houston now, I’m sure you knew that though, that flight was terrible. But I’m sitting in your room, you’re gonna have to forgive us though. we’re not gonna be here for long after you’re born, if you decide to be born here. We have to go back home to Canada, but on the bright side, we’re gonna be back when you’re a little older. Even though you’re not here yet, everybody loves you. You’re gonna have a lot of really cool aunts, like so cool,” Erin stood in the door listening to Ella talk, “They’re so much fun and they’re totally gonna spoil you. Your mom’s got a few more years on her, so we’ll be in Houston a lot. Maybe, if we’re lucky, then we’ll get to go see her in the next World Cup. She’s pretty good at what she does. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we made it home and that I love you very, very much and I hope you’re doing good in there. I’m sure you are, keep on kicking little thing, it’s cool.”  
“Aw, I’m so glad you think I’m good at what I do,” Erin laughed.  
Ella, who still had her back to the door, jumped, “Erin! Jesus! You always do this! How long have you been standing there?”  
“About where you said that I have a few more years on me,” she said, as she sat down across from her wife, “I know I do, but that’s beside the point. I was looking for you. Remember when I said that I got you something that was more for the baby for your birthday?”   
Ella nodded.  
“I had it sent here, because it was kind of big and probably not the easiest to travel with,” she said as she got up and opened the closet to pull out a wrapped square.   
She handed it to Ella, “What is it? Did you make it?”  
Erin sat next to her, “Open it.”  
Ella tore open the paper to reveal a painting of Deep Cove Park, one of their favorite places to go together, “It’s perfect,” she smiled leaning over to kiss her wife, “When did you make this?”  
“Well, you slept a lot when you first got pregnant so I had to fill the time with something. I figured we could hang it in here so that the baby has something nice to look at when we bring it home.”  
“You know it’s gonna be sleeping most of the time, right?”  
“Okay, but maybe it’s so we have something nice to look at,” Erin said smiling crookedly.  
“It’s perfect, thank you. Little love likes it too.”  
Erin smiled and leaned her head on Ella’s shoulder, “Sometimes it’s still kind of unreal that we’re actually having a baby, y’know?”  
“Yeah, like I know that there’s a baby in there, and I feel it moving, but it’s sort of hard to wrap my head around the fact that in a few months there’s going to be a real baby that’s our’s in the world.”  
“It’s gonna be so cool though, like that’s our’s,” she said, putting a hand on Ella’s belly, “We get to teach them things and take them to soccer practice and all the other cool things.”  
Ella smiled, “Like dance class and band practice if they want.”  
“I never had any luck with dance class, did you?”  
“Oh never. But what if they’re like a world class dancer? I mean one of it’s moms is married to a world class soccer player.”  
“Stop talking about yourself Ella.”  
“I’m sorry what can I say? I married the best.”  
“You’re sweet,” she said kissing Ella’s forehead, “We have dinner plans,” Erin said, getting up.  
“Help me,” Ella said reaching out for her wife’s hand. Erin helped her up, “Thanks. What a world class wife I have.”  
“You’re welcome,” she said walking out of the room.  
“With a world class ass.”  
“Thanks, I try,” Erin laughed.  
~  
They met Bianca and Carli along with some others at the restaurant, everybody was happy to see them back, especially because they got to Houston a few days later than everyone else. Ella answered about a thousand questions about how she was feeling and when the baby was coming and was clearly getting sick of it, before Erin swooped in and asked Bianca how law school was going.   
Eventually, everybody fell back into their old routine of lovingly making fun of one another and taking silly pictures. Ella then realized that while she missed the game, she really missed her team. She had some of the best times of her life with those girls. They were like her second family and in the off season, she missed them like crazy. She wondered what it would be like had she put off retiring for another season. She knew that she retired for all the right reasons, but she missed it. She always said that she stepped away from the game for her family, and she did, there was nothing more in the world that she wanted than to be a mom. But to be at dinner with all of her former teammates who were going to go to practice in the morning together, and for her to stay home and not get to go along with them made her miss it even more. She thought for a second about how maybe after the baby was born that she could go back to the game. She knew Erin would support her decision and so would Houston, but she also already knew from a few of her teammates that being away from their kids so much sucked, and she didn’t know if she wanted to do that.   
Erin was watching Ella as she thought, she wasn’t sure exactly what was going through her mind, but she was biting her lip so she knew whatever it was was something that they would have to talk about later, but for now she reached for her wife’s hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.   
Carli raised her glass and said, loud enough for almost everybody in the restaurant to hear, “To a championship season!”  
“Cheers!” All the girls shouted. They laughed and ate dessert before taking a picture to post on Instagram before they went home.   
They were laying in bed when Erin asked, “What were you thinking about at dinner tonight?”  
Ella sighed, “I was thinking about how much I miss playing. And that maybe after the baby’s born, I should try to get back into it.”  
“If that’s what you wanna do, then I’m behind you one hundred percent of the way.”  
“I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do. I mean Jess says being away from her son is the hardest thing about being pro with a kid.”  
“I know, it’s totally up to you whether or not you want to come back or not.”  
“I’ve officially retired, like we had the whole ceremony and everything, they retired my number. Maybe I can’t come back like as a full team player, but maybe like as staff or something.”  
“Whatever you want to do is perfectly fine. If you want to go back to playing full time we can travel with the baby, and if not that’s okay too.”  
Ella leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, “Thanks, honey, I love you.”  
“I love you too.”


	16. Chapter 16

A week later, Erin left practice early because Ella had a doctor’s appointment.  

“We’re gonna find out if it’s a boy or a girl today,” she told Bianca as she was about to leave the field, “Ella’s dead convinced it’s a boy, but I’m not so sure. Obviously, we don’t care, happy and healthy is all that matters. You know, what everybody says,” Bianca laughed and let in a goal that she was meant to save, “Sorry have a good practice, bye.”

“Bye asshole.”

Erin drove home to find Ella pacing nervously around their apartment, “El, what are you doing?”

“I’m nervous, what if there’s something wrong, what if the baby’s not okay?”

Erin wrapped her in a hug, “I’m sure the baby’s fine, do you feel like there might be something off?”

“No, I just started thinking about what if something is wrong? All the what ifs are the worst part of this whole thing.”

She kissed her forehead, “I’m sure that everything’s fine. Let’s go see that perfect little kid of ours.”

Ella was never very good at doctors’ appointments, and this one was no different. She sat in her seat nervously biting her lip and bouncing her leg. Erin held her hand and tried her best to keep her wife calm. They waited for what, to Ella, felt like a thousand years. When they finally called her name she sighed in relief and followed the nurse back.

While they sat the exam room for a few minutes waiting for the doctor to come in, Ella bounced nervously in her chair. The doctor walked in and introduced herself to them, and asked a few questions before turning on the ultrasound machine, “Well, the baby looks perfectly healthy,” she said, much to Ella’s relief. “Look there’s the face,” she said.

Ella looked over at her wife who was getting teary and said, “That’s our baby,” then the baby put its hands over its face, “Look it’s saying, ‘Mom don’t cry this is embarrassing’.”

Erin smiled and kissed her wife’s hand.

“Did you guys want to find out the gender?”

“Yes,” they said at the same time.

The doctor looked and pointed, “It looks like you’re having a baby girl.”

All Ella could say was, “Wow,” as she stared at her perfect baby girl, “She’s amazing.”

Erin smiled over at her, “She’s perfect.”

“I love you,” Ella whispered, wiping tears from her eyes.

"I love you too."

"Do y'all want pictures?" They nodded, and the doctor handed them a stack of photos, "Congratulations."

They thanked the doctor and left the office, on the ride home Erin asked, "Are you upset that it's not a boy?"

Ella was taken aback by the question, "Oh my gosh, no! I just felt like she was gonna be a boy. I'm just glad that everything is okay with her."

"Promise?"

She grabbed Erin's hand, "Yes. I’m so excited that we’re having a little girl, I like doing girl things, tea parties and dolls, you know. But I mean if she’s into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and weird Canadian things like hockey, like her mom, that’s fine too.”

Erin laughed, “I didn't want to say it until we knew what we were having but I was terrified that she was gonna be a he. I don't have any brothers, I don't know what to do with a boy."

"Well now you don't have to worry about it until we decide if we want more. But if we're being honest, I really wanted a girl. I remember when I was younger I used to think about having a little girl and having tea parties and doing her hair and teaching her how to play soccer. You know all the sentimental things.”

Erin smiled over at her, “You’re cute with all of your sentimental things.”

“I try,” Ella smiled back.

“Do you wanna tell people?”

Ella shook her head, “Not right now. I’m so happy right now with just you and I know that I’m okay with keeping it a secret for a little bit. But only a little bit. We’re gonna have to tell our family soon, though. I can’t keep it a secret for more than a day.”

Erin laughed, “I know.”

~

Later that night, Erin was laying with her head in Ella’s lap watching one of Ella’s favorite trashy reality shows, when she said, “What are we going to call her?”

“Like what are we going to name her?”

“Yeah, she’s gonna be a person, she needs a name eventually, right?”

“I like Harper,” she said as she played with Erin’s hair. Erin bit her lip, “No?”

“I mean it’s okay. But Haley’s kid is Harper.”

“So we’re taking Harper off the table?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not my favorite actually, I liked it a lot though. But I was thinking, that maybe for her middle name we could maybe use Willow or something like that? You know, for my dad. His middle name was William and I thought maybe we could use it somehow.”

Erin was playing with Ella’s fingers, absentmindedly, “I really like that.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely! Especially because your dad isn’t around anymore and you can tell her all about him and why we named her after him. Also whatever we end up naming her is gonna sound super badass with Willow McLeod."

"I'm glad you like it."

She turned her head so she was looking at Ella's belly and said, "Little Love, how do you feel about it?"

Ella felt her kick, "I think she likes it. Or she's saying moms don't do this to me."

"Already causing trouble."

"Just like her mother."

"I never caused any trouble!"

"Really now, McLeod? Do we need to talk about the meat pranks?"

"Shh! I'm an angel."

"An angel who puts raw meat in her coach's pockets."

"So she's gonna learn from the best!"

"If you teach our daughter to put meat in people's pockets, I am going to kill you."

~

Before they went to bed, they called their family to tell them about the baby.

Liza, as always, was first. Ella FaceTimed her and when she picked up, Ella said, “You were right, Wooze.”

“I was right? About what?”

Ella looked at Erin before saying, “Your niece.”

“Oh my God! I forgot that was today! It’s a girl?”

Ella nodded, “It is a girl.”

Liza screamed, “I knew it! Are you guys excited?”

“Of course we are!”

“Is she healthy?”

“One hundred percent, she’s perfect,” Erin said.

“Oh good! I’m so glad, does she have a name yet?”

Ella looked at Erin once more before saying, “She doesn’t have a first name yet, but I think we’ve picked a middle name.”

“Are you gonna tell me what it is?”

“Nope. Not until she’s here,” Erin said, making sure that Ella couldn’t say anything, “Sorry, Liza. It’s just in case we end up not using it.”

Liza sighed, “You two can never make things easy for me, can you?”

“What do you mean?” Ella asked.

“You got engaged and instead of waiting a reasonable amount of time like normal people, you turned around and got married ten days later and I couldn’t go because I had work and couldn’t take off. Then one day out of the blue, you call me and tell me you’re pregnant, and I know you planned it because you married a woman. You can’t surprise me like that again! It’s too much for my heart.”

“Sorry, Wooze, when we figure out what we’re going to name her, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Have you told mom yet?”

Ella shook her head, “You’re the first.”

“Call mom! You have to tell her. I love you,” she said before hanging up

Ella called her mom next, and when she answered, she said, “We went to the doctor today.”

“No hello?”

“Hi Mom,” Ella sighed, her mother was always big on phone manners and today was no different.

“Thank you! So you went to the doctor?”

“Yeah, we did,” Ella smiled, resting the hand that wasn’t holding the phone on her belly.

“And how is my precious grandchild?”

“She’s amazing.”

“She?”

“Yes, she’s definitely perfect.”

“Oh, honey, that’s wonderful. Daughters are the best, don’t tell your brother. How are you? Are you happy? How’s Erin?”

“I’m really great Mom, I’ve never been happier. Erin’s over the moon. She’s been sitting here staring the ultrasound pictures for probably an hour.”

Erin laughed and said, “I’m amazed, we’re having a baby.”

“We are having a baby.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re happy, but it’s time for me to go to bed.”

“Bye, Mom. Miss you.”

“Miss you too, sweetie. I’ll see you in a few weeks, I love you.”

Erin leaned over and kissed Ella’s temple. Ella sighed happily, and put her head on Erin’s shoulder, “Call your parents, I’m sure they’d love to hear about our baby girl.”

Erin nodded and pulled out her phone, and FaceTimed her dad, he picked up after one ring, “Hey, beautiful daughter!”

“Hi Daddy!” Erin smiled at the phone screen.

“What’s up?”

“Where’s Mom?”

“You called me looking for your mother? I must say,I’m a little hurt.”

“Oh my god, Dad,” Erin laughed. “We want to talk to both of you.”

He laughed, “I know, I know,” he got off the couch and yelled, “CHERYL. CHERYL, Erin and Ella want to talk to us,” he turned his attention back to his phone screen, “She’s coming. How’s my favorite daughter-in-law?”

Ella laughed, “I’m pretty good, how’s my favorite father-in-law?”

“I’m great, is my daughter treating you well?”

“She always does.”

Erin’s mom came into the frame, “Mom! So kind of you to join us!”

“Very funny, Erin. How are you two?”

Erin’s dad gave her a look, “We’ve already covered that, they’re both good. What did you  girls want to talk to us about?”

“So we went to the doctor today.”

“And everything’s good with the baby, right?” Erin’s mom asked, concerned.

“She’s perfect,” Ella said, “Everything is good with her.”

“She?”

“Yeah, your granddaughter, is perfect. She looks less like an alien this time,” Erin said, reaching over for the ultrasound pictures, and putting them in front of the camera, “Here she is.”

“We can’t wait to meet her! I know she’ll be beautiful just like her moms,” Erin’s dad smiled.

“Are you girls planning on coming back to Canada before she’s born?” Cheryl asked.

Erin looked at Ella, “I mean obviously, we’d like to, but ultimately it’s up to Ella. If she feels comfortable traveling back, then yes we’ll be back and if not, she’ll just be born here. She’s still gonna have Canadian citizenship either way.”

“Ella, what are you thinking? Should I buy plane tickets?”

Ella bit her lip, “I don’t know yet. I’d like to take her home to our house, and not to the apartment, but I’m not sure what we’re gonna do. It also sort of depends on whether or not the Dash make the playoffs this year. But we’ll let you know either way.”

“Alright, sweetie. We’ll talk to you later.”

“Love you,” Erin said.

“Love you too,” her parents said in unison before ending the call.

Erin snuggled into Ella’s side, kissed her cheek, and fell asleep.

~

****  
  



	17. Chapter 17

Erin left for practice before Ella was awake the next morning. She leaned down and  kissed Ella  goodbye and she rolled over and grabbed Erin's pillow and sighed.

In the car on the way to practice she sang along to the radio and thought about her soon to be daughter. She thought back to a couple of years ago, before she met Ella, she was almost certain she never wanted kids. She liked her niece and nephew well enough but she never wanted any of her own. Kids were sticky and they were covered in germs and she didn’t like when they cried. Then Ella came into her life and turned everything upside down. Ella was like magic. Even before they were together she started falling for her. For all she knew, Ella was straight, and falling for straight girls was very bad, you don't fall for a straight girl, it always ends in heartache. So she distanced herself and then one night, soon after Carm got sent to Boston, Ella knocked on her door and kissed her. Erin took it as a sign and they started kissing more.  When she started dating Ella, everything was brighter. Life got more colorful, she was happier, and Ella loved her for who she was. There was no doubt about it, Ella made her better. The first time she saw Ella with kids in Chicago, she knew. She knew she wanted kids with her. She knew she wanted everything with her.

She remembered the day that Ella first brought up the idea of having kids to her. It was few months after they first started dating, when she visited her in Canada and they were cuddled up on her couch watching a movie, when Ella asked, “Do you want kids?”

Erin took a deep breath, “I didn’t think I did--”

“You don’t want them?” Ella asked, a little crestfallen.

“You didn’t let me finish, El.”

“Oh sorry," she sighed, biting her lip.

“I didn’t think I did until I met you.”

“So you do?”

“I think so, yeah, do you?”

“Yeah, I do, ever since I was little”

“Maybe we should do that, you know, in a few years.”

“Maybe,” Ella smiled and curled into Erin.

~

She was in her head all the way to the locker room before she was accosted by her teammates asking a thousand and one questions about the baby.

“What is it?”

“It’s a baby.”

“What is the baby?”

“A human.”

“Why can't we know?" K begged, "Your best friend would tell us!"

"I know she would, but she's still asleep, maybe she'll bring Max by later."

"Oh you know what you guys should do?" Steph suggested, "The balloon thing where you put the color in the box and open and everybody gets to see! My cousin did that and it was so cool!"

"I don't think we're gonna do that. It's kinda lame,” she responded.

Steph frowned.

"Sorry, Steph. I think we're just gonna tell people, it's just easier. Plus Ella already knows and we all know how bad she is with keeping a secret. She would let it slip before we even had the opportunity to do any box opening or cake cutting or whatever," she said, as she tapped out a message telling Ella to come to the facility later.

~

Ella got a message from Erin saying, “ _Hey love, you and Max should come by later. The girls have thousands of questions about the baby_."

Ella rolled over and reached for her phone, as she read, she rested her head on Erin’s pillow. It smelled like her and the way Erin smelled was one of her favorite smells of all time. She typed out a quick response and sighed as she stretched out in bed. Max ran up from the foot of their bed and started licking her face, “Good morning, buddy,” she laughed. He tried to sit on her belly, but he couldn’t balance himself and he fell off. “Wanna go outside?” she asked.

With that, he lept off the bed and ran toward the door. Ella got up and stretched a bit more before following Max to the door. She put his leash on and opened the door and he ran out. It was still spring, so there was a little bit of a chill in the air, and she was only wearing a pair of old soccer shorts and a still way over sized Penn State t shirt she had stolen from Erin. She shivered while Max sniffed around, she should’ve known better than to go out in in shorts and a t shirt with Max. Max always took a long time to do his business and be done, she rubbed her eyes and watched the dog sniff the air before going.

When Max finally finished his business, she was shaking she was so cold. Usually, she let him walk up the stairs back to their apartment, but this time, she picked him up and went up the stairs as fast as she could. All she wanted was to lay in her warm bed, and when they finally made it up the three flights of stairs to their floor she set Max down and he ran straight to their door. After she opened the door, he sprinted right for his bed and Ella walked to hers. It was still warm under the covers and she laid there and reveled in the warmth and comfort of the bed. The only thing that was missing was her wife, but she would be there later and that was just fine with her.

After a few minutes of lying still and watching tv, Ella felt the baby kicking at her side, she put her hand to where she was kicking, “Hey sweet girl,” she smiled to herself, “Good morning! How are you?” the baby moved some more, “We’re gonna go visit your mom in a little bit, after I shower, and she said that the girls have lots of questions about you. You’re really a popular little `girl and you’re not even born yet. Everybody is really excited to meet you, your mom and I especially. But I need you to do me a huge favor and stay in there until the end of August. Your mom wants to see you be born and, if we’re being honest, I really need her here when you come, so just hold off until she’s here. I mean I know you basically do what you want in there, but it would be really cool if you did us this one solid. For your mom because, she loves us a whole lot, you know? When we first found out you were coming, and I would get sick she would sit there with me and rub my back and take care of me. I know you two haven’t really met yet, but I promise she loves you a whole lot, maybe more than she loves me. She talks about you all the time, and she loves it so, so much when you kick, her eyes light up and she smiles bigger than I’ve ever seen. She gets so excited and it makes me excited because I love how much she loves you because I love you more than I’ve ever loved anybody in my whole life.”

~

After a long shower, Ella got dressed came to the training facility with Max. When she walked over to the field with Max trotting behind her, the girls ran to meet her, they hugged her and told her how much they missed her. “So, what is it?” K asked.

“What is what?” Ella asked, pretending like she had no idea what they were asking about.

“The baby!”

She looked over at Erin who was on the ground playing with Max, “Erin, should we tell them?”

“They’ve been bugging me about it all day.”

Ella pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked for the best ultrasound photo before turning it toward the team, as they gathered around her, “So, this is her face, and there’s her hands, and those are her feet."

“So it’s a girl?” B asked.

They nodded and the team started cheering and hugging Ella, a few ran over to Erin and tackled her to the ground.

"Does she have a name yet?" Haley asked.

"Not quite yet," Ella laughed, helping her wife off the ground, "But we're open to suggestions," Immediately, girls started shouting their own names.

“Any kid would be lucky to be named after me,” Kealia said.

"People can't even say your name right K! There’s a reason people just call you K."

"Shh, it's unique."

"Shouldn't y'all be practicing?" Ella asked looking at Erin and giving her a pleading look.

"Yes we should!" Erin said, "Come children, let's not bother the nice pregnant lady anymore!"

"I'll be visiting the office people,” she said, “And Erin?”

“Yeah?”

“Your butt looks good in those shorts,” she smirked.

Erin winked before turning and walking away.

~

Ella was spinning in a swivel chair talking to Ben, the Dash’s social media guy, about ticket sales for the season when he said, “You know, Jen Cooper’s leaving, she took a job with Fox Soccer, so they’re gonna need another commentator. You’d probably be a really good fit, if you want I could put you in touch with the right people.”

Ella hesitated, “I’m not sure.”

“Come on! It would be really great to have you back. Everybody in the office misses you, plus since you’ll be back, we could do the Ella and Erin show again and you know how much people love that. You know most of the team pretty well and a lot of people love you and they miss you being around,” he was almost begging.

“I really want to, but I should probably talk about it with Erin,” Ella replied, “But I’m going to give you a soft yes.”

"I'm not supposed to tell you this," Ben whispered, leaning closer, "but they really want you. They're just using me to plant the seed."

"So like they want me to think it was your idea?"

"Pretty much."

"We could use a little extra money. But towards the end of the season it's kind of iffy as to whether or not I'll be there."

"I'm sure that'll be fine!" He said, as he got out of his chair, leaving Ella spinning in her own, "I'll be right back."

"What do you think, bud?" She asked Max, "Do you think Erin's gonna be okay with me commentating the games?" Max jumped into her lap and started licking her face, "Okay, okay! I get it! It’s a yes!”

Ben returned with Brian Ching and a stack of papers, "We are so happy to have you back, Ella! I'm glad Ben talked you into coming back."

"He didn't have to say much to sell it."

“Well, we have some stuff for you to sign and then you’ll officially be a member of the Dash again.”

“So, I just want to make sure that you know that there is a chance that I’ll be a little tied up around the end of the season,” Ella said, nervously.

“Yes, and we’ll find somebody to take over from you when the time comes.”

“And you’re sure that the organization is fine with it?”

“Yes, as long you want  there will always be a place for you in Houston.”

“I really appreciate that.”

“Welcome back,” Brian said, shaking her hand.

~

Ella made it home before Erin, so she decided to start dinner. Max was following her around, occasionally yipping when Ella didn’t pay enough attention to him.

Erin walked in, singing to herself, “Hello sunshine!” she yelled as she set her stuff down.

“Hey,” Ella said, kissing her hello, “How was practice?”

“It was good, I’m tired. How was your day?”

“Well, I woke up because Little Love was having a dance party but I went back to sleep, then I took Max outside and he took decades to do his business, and then I showered, which was nice. Then, I got ready, and talked to my sister, and after that Max and I went to visit you, and then I took the open commentator position, which they’re paying me for, so it was really good.”

Erin kissed her forehead, "They offered you the commentator job?"

"Yeah!" She said walking over to the kitchen to check on her chicken, "They really wanted me actually."

"And they're okay with you potentially missing the last few games?"

"Brian made it very clear that he was okay with it. He said they would find somebody to take over when she comes."

"I'm so excited that you took it."

Ella leaned on the counter, "Really?"

"Absolutely, they're paying you to do something that we both know you would do anyway."

"We get to drive to work together again, like back in the day."

"You make it sound like it was years ago, but really the last time we did it was like, what, a few months ago?"

"Sure, but look how much has happened in a few months," she laughed gesturing toward her belly.

Erin smiled and leaned over the counter to kiss her, and as she kissed her she heard somebody knocking on their door.

"Who is it?" Ella yelled making her way to the door.

"It's me," the voice said.

Ella opened the door to see Carli looking a little frazzled, "Carli! What's up?"

"I found a cockroach in my apartment and-"

"Honey! Carli needs you!"

"I thought this place wasn't gonna have roaches!" Erin sighed, following Carli down the hall.

"Where is it?"

"It was in the kitchen, I almost died." Carli said, holding her hand over her heart.

"What would you do if we weren't here?" Erin asked as she grabbed a paper towel and crept up on the roach.

"Die probably."

"Well, you're lucky we're here then," she said as she picked the roach up with the paper towel and then sprinted over to the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet, "That's nasty."

"Oh my god Erin! There's another one!" Carli shrieked.

"I'm not doing that again, you can come to our place for a while and then we're gonna buy some roach traps. I did not sign up to be a professional roach trapper. Why do we always end up in places with roach infestations?" She said as she stomped back down the hall and into her and Ella's apartment. "Babe, Carli's having dinner with us and then we're roach proofing again."

“Again?”

“Yes, somehow, we ended up in another apartment building with damn roaches.”

“This is getting old,” Ella sighed, flopping down on the couch, “Carls, I made chicken with black beans and rice, it’s in the kitchen if you want some. I would get it for you, but my feet hurt.”

Carli walked over to the kitchen and yelled, “Where do you guys keep your plates?”

“Third cabinet from the left, utensils are in the drawer next to the stove,” Ella yelled back  as Erin sat next to her, she said “Honey, can you do me a super huge favor?”

Erin looked at her with kind eyes, “Sure.”

“Can you, maybe, rub my feet?”

Erin raised an eyebrow at her.

“Please?” Ella almost begged.

“Only because I love you am I willing to touch your nasty flintstones feet.”

“What are you going to do if our daughter has my flintstone feet?” she said swinging her feet up into Erin’s lap.

“I don’t know, but they’ll be cute little baby feet, so maybe I’ll be okay with them.”

“Get to rubbin’, wifey.”

Erin rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at her.

Carli came in and sat in a chair across from the couch, “You guys are gross.”

“I’m sorry, who’s feeding who dinner because they were afraid of a cockroach?” Ella teased, “Dare I mention this when I talk about you at the season opener?”

Carli looked at her crooked, "What?"

"You're looking at the new commentator for the Houston Dash," Ella said proudly, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

“Shut up.”

“No for real, I took the offer today.”

“Oh that’s so good! But please don’t embarrass us too much.”

"I'm a professional. I would never embarrass anybody. Except maybe just once."

"She won't," Erin said running her finger up and down the bottom of her wife's feet, causing her to giggle.

"Stop!" She laughed.

"Not 'til you promise that you won't embarrass us!"

"Fine! I won't!"

"Thank you," Erin said and went back to massaging Ella's feet.

"You're gonna kill me one day McLeod."

"You know I'm sitting right here?" Carli asked.

Ella shushed her, “I can send you straight back to your cockroach filled apartment, if that’s what you want.”

“Okay, sorry I’ll be quiet,” Carli said looking down at her plate.

Erin and Carli went to Lowe's after dinner to get roach traps and for most of their trip, they talked about the team and how they were meshing. That was, until Erin's phone lit up and Carli saw her background and asked, "Is that her?"

"Yeah," Erin said with a smile, "That's her."

"Does she have a name yet?"

"She has a middle name, but we've only really talked about names once."

"What's her middle name? If you want to keep it secret that's fine, I'm just curious."

"Oh no it's not a secret, we think it's gonna be Willow. After her dad."

"Ella's dad?"

"Yeah."

"I like Willow, it's really cool."

Erin looked over at her, "I thought so and it means a lot so it's good."

"She's really lucky, you know, to have a mom who's willing kill the roaches for her."

“Thanks,” Erin said, smiling as they pulled into the parking garage of their apartment building.

“Any time,” Carli said as she made her way into the building, “Also, thanks for the ride.”

Erin sat in the car for a second and stared at the little miracle on her phone before going in to find Ella snuggled up on the couch with Max. She smiled to herself and thought about just how lucky she was **.** **  
**


	18. Chapter 18

In the morning, Ella found herself still in Erin’s arms. Softly, she whispered, “Erin, hey, wake up.”

“Huh?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” she yawned.

“Little love says good morning,” she said, guiding Erin’s hand to where the baby was kicking.

“Good morning, sweetpea,” she said leaning over and kissing Ella’s belly.

"She's been moving around all morning."

"Really?"

"Yeah, like even though it's been a few weeks, it's still so weird when I feel her moving around."

"Every time I feel her kicking from the outside, I'm blown away. Like I know she's real I know she’s ours, but when I feel her move it just gets so much more real. It's still crazy that we're more than halfway there."

"I can't either. I remember when I took the test like it was yesterday. I had a better plan to tell you but you know how I am."

"You did?"

"Yeah, you know that onesie that says 'My mom is a keeper'? I bought it a long time before we even started talking about trying because I saw it and I thought of you. I was gonna give it to you in a cute little box but, it obviously didn't work out all that well. But she's gonna wear it to a game."

"What about her little Canada  jersey?"

"She's gonna wear that too!."

"She's gonna be super cute with her little jersey and her cute mom. Everybody’s gonna be so jealous of my cute little family."

Ella smiled, "We should get her a little Dash jersey."

“Absolutely! Maybe it should be a Masar 30 jersey.”

"Maybe, but she's totally gonna hate us when she’s older for all the cute little jerseys we put her in," Ella laughed.

"It's okay, I'm gonna embarrass her so hard. Just like when I embarrass you sometimes and just like how my parents embarrassed me when I was a kid."

"Oh god the poor kid. She has no idea what she's in for."

"I do it out of love!"

"The ingrown hair thing was out of love?"

"It's a bad habit El, I had to answer the question! Plus, it's nasty, but I love you so I deal with it."

"Aw thanks that's so kind of you, babe" Ella said sarcastically.

"I try."

Ella playfully shoved her and glanced at the clock, "We have to leave in like 45 minutes, so if you're feeling really kind, you can make breakfast while I get ready."

"Oh yeah, you have a job where you don't get to wear gym shorts and tshirt."

"Yes but I do get to sit in a spinny chair with wheels all day, so it's a trade off."

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"Whatever your little heart desires, my dear," Ella said kissing her on the cheek before getting out of bed and walking into the bathroom.

After her shower, she went into the closet and tried on about 5 different shirts before finding one that actually fit right. She was clearly frustrated when she finally walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. She bit her lip as she sat in front of Erin at the counter.

"What's wrong?" Erin asked, setting a bowl of oatmeal in front of her.

"Nothing fits," she said shakily.

Erin knelt down next to Ella's chair and put her hands on her knees, "It's alright. After we're done for the day, we're gonna go to the mall and buy you some new stuff."

Ella nodded, “Okay.”

"Okay, just remember why nothing fits and that it's only a little bit longer."

"I know, but sometimes it's just frustrating. Things that used to be big on me barely fit. I have enough huge t shirts to last a lifetime. But I have one decent shirt left."

"Which is why we're going to the mall."

They finished breakfast, cleaned up and left for the Dash. Ella dropped Erin off at the locker room and Erin told her to have a good day.  Then she walked into the offices to cheers of hello and she smiled and said thank you.

During that day, Ella was given the passwords to all their social media from Ben and told that she could post pretty much whatever she wanted. Then she was given the full rosters of each team in the league and all the details on every player to use as she saw fit when calling the games. She felt like her head was spinning, there was so much information to keep track of. Brian Ching took her aside and told her that if she wanted, he could give her a travel position where she could travel with the team in addition to calling the home games. After making sure that he knew that half way through the summer she quite literally could not fly, she took it. The rest of the day went by quickly and she loved every second of it. When Dash practice was over, Erin came in and sat in Ben’s currently vacant chair and asked how much longer she was going to be, when she said she wasn’t sure Erin told her she was going back to the field for a while. Ella nodded and went back to her work. Soon after Erin left, she finished her work, picked up her things, and went to the field to get her wife so they could go to the mall.

~

“What do you think?” Ella asked as she opened the dressing room door. She was wearing a mustard yellow striped shirt that she thought was ugly, “Be honest, please.”

“It’s okay,” Erin said from the bench across from where Ella was standing, “What do you think?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed, “It’s okay and there’s a lot of room, and it’s really soft, but it’s sort of ugly.”

“Does it come in other maybe slightly less ugly colors?”

“Yes, and I grabbed them all, do not worry,” she said turning around and closing the dressing room door, “The navy one is better.”

“Good.”

“God, why is everything striped? Apparently it’s required for pregnant people to wear stripes. Like it must be the uniform or something, but we’re not in jail we don’t need a uniform!” Ella sighed in exasperation.

“El, you don’t have to get anything with stripes if you don’t want to.”

“Maybe I’ll just get one thing with stripes on it.”

“If that’s what you want.”

“Oh wait, this one’s cute too. It makes the bump look super cute,” she said unlocking the door and peeking her head out.

“Well let me see,” She smiled, as Ella stepped out, "You’re cute. That one is a lot better I don't know why that first one was so awful."

"Because mustard is not a good color. It looks good on like 3 people and I am not one of them."

"I think you look good in anything, well, except maybe that mustard shirt," she said getting up and wrapping her arms around Ella and putting her their foreheads together, "Are we done in this store?"

"Yes, I think so," she said, slipping out of Erin's arms and back into the dressing room to change, "There wasn't really much of anything here aside from the one shirt."

"We can go to more stores, if you want."

"I think we have to. I'm so sorry, honey, this has got to be the last thing you want to be doing."

"Not true, I'm with you so it doesn't matter what I'm doing."

"You're a cheeseball."

"Don't care," she said while she waited for Ella to pay.

There was more of the same in the next store, everything was striped except for a few things which she ended up getting, but Ella was still frustrated with her lack of luck in shopping until she saw the baby clothes section. She immediately made a beeline for it, leaving Erin in her dust. "Erin! Look at these!" She said holding up little pink onesie, "It's so tiny and cute and pink!"

Erin took it from her and looked at it, "It is really cute."

"For real?"

"Yes for real!"

"You hate pink though."

"Yes but look at it! There's a little pig face on the butt!"

"We should buy it."

"We should! Are there anymore onesies with animals on the butts? We should buy those too."

"Babe, I don't know if we need every outfit with an animal on the butt."

"But look," she said, holding a onesie with a monkey on it, "It's so cute!"

"We can get two. We can't dress our kid exclusively in onesies with animals on the butts and little soccer jerseys."

"We can-"

"We can but we aren't."

Erin nodded and Ella turned around to look at tiny sun dresses, "Ella look at this."

She turned to find Erin holding up a onesie so it looked like her head was in the onesie, Ella laughed, "You're such a dork," she said, "Wait I'm gonna take a picture."

“El, please, for the love of god, don’t post that.”

“It’s so cute though,” she said showing her the phone, “Please, it’s so good, we can get another silly animal butt outfit.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” she said taking a onesie with a monkey on the butt, “Look at how cute this one is. Oh my god! Look! It’s a ninja turtles onesie! Forget the little pig one, this is it.”

"I mean I guess, if you want it," Ella said glancing up from her phone, “We’re not taking her out in public in it though,” she laughed as she posted the picture.

@emasar 3: She's ready folks ha #littlelovelovelove #halfwaythere

~

They stopped at Barnes and Noble and picked up a few kids books since they decided reading to the baby was something they wanted to do as often as they could. After they picked out their books, Erin wandered into the philosophy section while Ella kept looking around the kids section. Eventually, in the back corner, she found a book about a kid who had two moms, she knew they had to buy it. She made her way over to where Erin was swaying back and forth reading the back of a book, “Hey, honey,” she said and Erin jumped, “Sorry, but look what I found,” she said, laughing handing the book to her.

Erin flipped through the book, “This is so perfect.”

“I know! We have to get it.”

“Of course we’re getting it."

"Okay, I'm gonna go pay. I'm also taking you to dinner for being the best wife ever, so pick a place," Ella said, taking the book back before looking around to make sure nobody was around and kissing her on the cheek. Even though they were married, they were, after all, in Texas and Texas wasn't exactly a place that was okay with a same sex couple displaying any form of affection in public so they were always careful before they kissed or even held hands.

"No, you don't have to do that."

"I know I don't have to, but I want to. Especially because you've been putting up with me being needy and crying a lot for the last couple months."

"We don't have to go out, I would be just as happy if we got takeout and watched tv at home."

"I can make that happen."

They drove home and Ella sang, terribly, and loudly, along to the radio while Erin laughed at her.

They ordered Thai, changed into their pajamas, and sat on the couch. Ella set her head in Erin's lap while Erin played with her hair, "I hope she gets your hair."

"She's gotta have a full head of hair already with the heartburn I've been having. That's a thing right? Heartburn equals hair?"

"I don't know, my sisters and I were all bald and Mal and Lilly were both bald."

"We all had hair, I mean you've seen Grey, we all had that much hair."

Erin laughed, "Monkey babies."

"We could have monkey baby."

"See that monkey onesie we got would totally make sense! Especially if she has as much hair as Grey."

"But what if she's bald? I kind of want her to be bald. I love bald babies."

"I guess we're just gonna have to wait a couple months and see."

"Well she's sitting on my bladder, so I'm gonna go, if the guy comes, my card is on the counter," Ella said getting up.

Max crawled into Erin's lap and looked at her, "What’s up?”

He yipped and licked her face.

“You want love don’t you?” she asked him as he continued licking her face, “Yes you do.”

Erin was so busy talking to Max that she didn’t hear Ella snickering, “I’m gone for two minutes and you’ve already moved on.”

“The fur baby wanted attention and you can’t say no to that face,” she laughed.

“Nobody can ever say no to him,” Ella grinned, as she sat on the couch next to her wife, “Nobody can say no to his mother either.”

“I know, we’re simply irresistable.”

“You’re a dork.”

“I’m your dork though,” she said leaning her head on Ella’s shoulder.

“You are my dork,” Ella smiled, “Hey, that’s the bell,” she said, as she got up from the couch to answer the door.

She returned with their food to find Erin sitting on the couch wiping tears from her eyes, “What happened?”

Erin shook her head, and didn’t answer.

Ella sat next to her and took her into her arms and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“She’s not mine,” Erin managed to stammer out before crumbling.

“What do you mean?”

Erin handed her her phone with the picture that Ella posted earlier that night on the screen. There under a slew of really great, positive, comments, was a single comment that said, “your not that babys real mom.” Ella rubbed her back, “You are her real mom,” she said softly, she knew the best way to deal with Erin when somebody said something hateful was to get in front of it before she had time to get into her head. Once Erin got into her head, there was no way to get her out until she was good and ready and down on herself and incredibly upset.

“No I’m not, I’m not related to her, you’re her real mom,” she wept as Ella wrapped her arms around her.

“Honey, look at me, she’s just as much yours as she’s mine.”

“She’s gonna know I’m not her real mom and what if she doesn’t like me?” she said before burying her head in to Ella’s neck.

“You are her real mom and she’s going to love you no matter what. You’re going to love her, right?” Ella whispered rubbing her back.

Erin nodded.

“And you’re gonna take care of her?”

“Yeah,” she whimpered.

“And you’re gonna teach her to be an amazing and kind human being?”

She nodded once more.

“Then you are her real mom. Just because she’s growing inside of me doesn’t make you not her real mom. Genes don’t matter, I mean, sure she might look like me, but I hope she gets your personality. I hope she learns how to tell a joke like you and she’s passionate like you and the thousands of other things I love about you. Those are things only you can give her, only you can teach her, it’s who loves her and takes care of her and teaches her things. That’s what makes a parent. Not genes. As far as I’m concerned, you are her real mom. And as far as our baby is concerned, you are her mom,” she said softly as she took her hand.

After a few minutes more of crying into her wife’s chest, Erin let out a shaky sigh, “I know, but when people say things like that it hurts, you know?”

Ella wiped the tears from Erin’s cheeks, “What they say doesn’t matter, they don’t know anything. They’re ignorant and were probably raised by hateful, horrible people which is the opposite of how we are going to raise our daughter,” Erin bit her lip, and looked down at their entangled hands, “She’s going to learn so much from you, just like I did. I want her to grow up to be just like her mom because you’re perfect and no matter what happens you will always be perfect and you’re going to be a great mom because of who you are. Nobody can take that away from you. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“I love you,” she said, letting Erin cuddle into her.

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so I figured that given Ella's retirement announcement I would try to get something out. I feel kind of bad that it's not all sunshine and rainbows, but this is the chapter I had originally planned on posting a few days from now, so here it is sort of early. My tumblr is mcleodywithachanceofmeatballs if anybody wants to come and mourn the loss of a great with me. 
> 
> Have a good rest of your day/night!


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So updates from here until probably the middle of December are probably going to be all over the place, I'm a college student and as it gets closer to the end of the semester, there's a lot of things that come up and as much as I love writing fic school comes first.

She let Erin fall asleep on her chest and fell asleep soon after.

In the morning, Ella woke to Erin, still asleep, throwing her arm over her, "Erin," she whispered, "Hey, babe, hey wake up."

"Huh?" She asked, her eyes still closed.

"You have a flight to Canada later."

"I know," she sighed, cuddling into her wife, "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you too," Ella said kissing the top of her head, "But let's not think about that now."

"Do you want me to make breakfast?" Erin's asked, shifting to look at her.

"Not yet, can we just stay here for a little bit?" She said tucking a piece of Erin's hair behind her ear.

"Of course we can,” she said, leaning in to kiss her.

They laid in bed for an hour and Ella told Erin about when she was a kid and cut her hair because Liza and Tyson dared her to and how that got her the most awful bowl cut and into a world of trouble. Erin stared at her the entire time, “Why are you staring at me?” Ella asked.

“Because I can,” she said.

“You know you do it all the time?”

“Because I married the most beautiful person on the Earth. And I’m leaving for a few days and I won’t get to stare at your beautiful face for a while.”

“You know what else you won’t get to do?” Ella asked.

“I can think of a lot of things,” Erin smirked, “But what was it that you were thinking?”

“You won’t get to read to Little Love,” she said. Every night since Erin read Love You Forever, they had made a point to read a book to the baby before they went to bed.

“Oh yeah, how could I have forgotten?” She gasped, getting out of the bed and going to the stack of books on their dresser, “Which one should we read today?”

“I’m kinda feeling Where the Wild Things Are,” Ella said, as she sat up and leaned back against the wall.

“I like it,” Erin responded, as she got back into bed and put her arm around Ella’s shoulder. As Erin read, the baby started kicking, Ella took Erin’s arm from around her shoulder and put it on her belly. When Erin finished reading, she leaned over and kissed Ella’s forehead, “Every time she kicks, it blows my mind.”

"It's really cool, but she does it a lot more when you're talking."

"Really?"

"Swear to god. She knows you're her mom. She moves when I talk, but not nearly as much as when you’re talking.”

“Do you really think that?”

“Yes, I’m telling you, this kid knows. Look, put your hand right here,” she said pointing to a spot on her belly, “and I’m going to talk and you’re going to say nothing.”

Erin raised an eyebrow at her, “You’re crazy, but okay.”

Ella talked about donut Sundays with her dad and how badly she wanted a doughnut for about five minutes, “Did you count?”

“I felt two.”

“Okay, you talk now, and I won’t say anything but I’ll count.” Erin talked directly to the baby about how crazy her mom was, and as she talked she moved more and more, Erin’s eyes got wider and wider, “What did I tell you?”

“That she knows who I am.”

“Yes, and what else?”

“That she is going to love me even though I’m not her biological mom.”

“I love you,” Ella said, kissing Erin’s temple, she paused and thought for a second, “About that breakfast you talked about earlier?”

“Sure, what do you want?”

“We can get donuts, I know you want them.”

“How did I manage to get the best wife ever?”

“Because you’re brilliant and perfect and you deserve nothing less than the best. Which is why you got me.”

“Just get dressed,” Ella joked, as she got out of bed, “Goober.”

“I love you too.”

As Ella was searching for a shirt, Erin asked, “What about Lucy?”

“For the baby?”

“Yeah, Lucy Willow McLeod.”

Ella thought for a second, before saying, “I hate to crush your hopes, but I kinda think Lucy McLeod sounds like that bitchy girl from highschool that was mean to everyone. Please don’t take that the wrong way.”

“No it’s fine, I was just putting it out there.”

Ella walked over to her wife, wrapped her arms around her and said, “We’ll find a good one, I promise. My mom always told me that naming a baby was almost as hard as actually having the baby because they live their whole lives with that name, but she said once we find a name we like, our baby’s name, it’s the easiest thing on earth because you just know.”

“I hope so,” Erin smiled down at her.

“We’ll figure it out, we can do anything, you and I,” Ella said leaning up to kiss her.

“So about those donuts?”

Ella gave her a look, “You were making it seem like getting donuts was for me, but it’s totally for you.”

“Maybe a little, but it’s also for you since I’m going to miss donut Sunday this week. Are you ready?” She asked.

“I was born ready, honey.”

The pair walked from their apartment to their favorite donut place hand in hand. Typically, they avoided public displays of affection when they were in Texas, simply because it was Texas and not nearly as accepting as Canada. But today, Ella laced her fingers with Erin’s and when they left their building, she refused to let go. Erin thought it was a little strange, but she just went with it, maybe because she was leaving for a few days to play a friendly, Ellay typically got clingy right before she left for anywhere.

On donut Sundays since they got back to Houston, it had been Erin who was the one to go out and get donuts while was still asleep. Before they would both go and eat in the shop and talk to the owner, a very kind older man called Gus. “I’m glad you’re coming with me, Gus asks about you all the time. I tell him you’re good but he knows nothing about Little Love,” Erin said as they turned the corner onto the block with the donut shop.

“I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned anything to him about her. I know she’s your favorite topic of conversation.”

“I know, I just wanted you to be there for it. Especially since his reaction was so good when we told him that we got married,” she said as she opened the door to the shop.

It was still fairly early in the morning, so there weren’t many people in the shop yet and Gus took immediate notice of the pair when they entered, “If it isn’t one of my favorite customers!” He exclaimed from behind the counter, “Good morning, Erin!”

“Morning Gus!” Erin shouted across the shop, “I brought you a special visitor.”

Then Gus noticed Ella, “Do my eyes deceive me? Ella McLeod? She’s alive! I was starting to think you had died or something worse!” He said coming out from around the counter, to hug her, “And you’re pregnant! Erin why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve been more generous with the good stuff!”

“I wanted to be here when we told you, but since she’s been doing this thing where she gets up really early to bring me donuts in bed, I haven’t been able to come.”

“So she’s taking good care of you then?” Gus asked.

Ella looked to her wife and said, “I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

“Oh good! I’m excited for you two! You’re going to make wonderful mothers,” he said making his way back around the counter, “What can I get for you lovely ladies today? It’s on the house!”

“Gus, you don’t have to do that,” Erin said reaching for her wallet.

“I want to do it, think of it as a gift.”

“You really don’t have to do that, Gus,” Ella said, reaching over the counter and touching his hand.

“I know that, but I’m going to anyway. Your money is no good here today, I will not take it.”

“Ella what would you like?” Erin asked, deciding that she was going to leave enough to pay for the donuts and then some in his tip jar.

“I thinking the creme filled for me and the jelly filled for the baby. She really wants two today.”

“Or you want two today,” Erin joked.

“I swear to you the baby is telling me she thinks I should have two. I also think I should have two, I’m growing another person after all.”

Gus laughed and handed her a plate with the two donuts and Ella stuck her tongue out at her wife.

“What can I get for you today, Ms. Erin?”

“I think I’m going to stick with the usual.”

“Glazed it is!” Gus said leaning over the counter and handing her the plate, “Congratulations on the baby, I expect a visit when he or she comes around.”

“Of course! End of August sound good?” Ella smiled.

“Absolutely!”

They ate their donuts and talked and laughed with each other. When it came time to leave, Gus made Ella promise to come by more often, and she also promised that she would make sure Erin didn’t come in long before she was awake.

They walked home, and Ella helped Erin pack her things for the airport and Max watched them sadly. He knew exactly what it meant when the suitcase came out and he always gave them the saddest looks when it came time for them to leave, and this time was no different.

“I’m coming right back, buddy,” Ella reassured him.

This didn’t stop him from staring sadly at her.

“What am I gonna do with you?” Erin asked, leaning over to pet him, “What am I gonna do when we have a kid? If I have a hard time saying bye to the dog, it’s gonna be super hard to say bye to her.”

Ella hugged her, “It’s going to be fine. Remember you’re doing this for us and I’m sure we will FaceTime you at least once a day. Sure it’ll be hard, but you’re the strongest person I know and I’m sure that you’ll handle it, and when you come back home I’ll let you change all the dirty diapers and all the good stuff. And while you’re gone, we’ll be wearing our Canada gear and cheering for you.”

“I do love seeing you in Canada gear.”

Ella laughed as she opened the door to leave, “Now imagine our baby in her tiny Canada gear.”

“You’re not making the idea of leaving you guys any easier, El,” Erin sighed reaching for her hand.

“I’m sorry! You know I don’t like the idea of you leaving either. Being away from you sucks even if it’s for a few days,” she said, biting her lip.

“We’re gonna be fine. Everything is going to be okay, I’m going to be back in exactly four days and two hours.”

Ella drove to the airport and Erin sat in the passenger seat singing as loudly as she could to whatever was on the radio, she usually didn’t get the words right, but it made Ella smile and that was her main goal.

They pulled up to the drop off section of the airport, and Ella got out with her wife to hug her goodbye, she wrapped her arms around her neck, “I’m gonna miss you,” she said softly.

“I’m gonna miss you too,” Erin said, pulling away just enough so that she could look into Ella’s eyes, “I love you.”

Ella nodded and kissed her, “I love you too, so much.”

Erin kissed her cheek and knelt so that she was eye level with Ella’s belly and said, “Hey Little Love, I’m gonna be gone for a few days and I need you to make sure that your mom doesn’t get into too much trouble while I’m gone. I love you.”

“I’ve dropped you off here countless times and I still cry every time,” Ella laughed shakily.

Erin smiled at her before kissing her one last time, “I love you, I’ll call you when I land. Drive safe on the way back home.”

Ella nodded, said I love you once more and watched Erin walk away and into the crowded airport.


	20. Chapter 20

~

Canada’s game was on a Dash day off, so Ella invited a couple of girls on the team to their apartment to watch Erin and the rest of the Canadians play against Mexico. She called Erin in the morning to wish her good luck and let her know that the Dash was, obviously, cheering for her and the rest of the girls. They talked for a little bit before Carm took the phone away and asked a thousand and one questions about everything.

“Does the baby have a name yet?”

Ella sighed, “Haven’t you already asked Erin about this?”

“Of course I have, but I want to make sure that your answers line up and that neither of you are lying to me.”

“She doesn’t have a name yet, do you have a suggestion?”

“Of course I do!”

“Okay, put me on speaker, and let us hear it but if it’s your name, I’m, hanging up.”

“I’m serious you guys! This isn’t like me saying you should name her after me, although I have suggested it to Erin before, and she rejected it,” Carm said, laughed.

“What is it Carm?”

“Mia McLeod.”

Ella thought for a second before asking Erin, “Honey, what do you think?”

“It’s actually not bad.”

“It’s pretty good actually, I like the double M thing.”

“Me too. We should put it on the list,” Erin said.

“Mia would be the only name on the list though.”

“So it’s totally a winner, then,” Carm said.

“We will consider it.”

“I have to go soon, good luck Carm. Erin, take me off speaker please,” when she knew Erin had taken her off speaker, she continued, “I love you so much and I’m so proud of you and I know you’re going to get me a clean sheet tonight.”

“Thank you. I love you too, so much.”

“Have a good game.”

Ella hunted down a stack of sticky notes in their kitchen and wrote Mia Willow McLeod on one and stuck it on the fridge before going to get ready. She went into Erin’s side of the closet looking for one of her old goalkeeper jerseys, next to all the hung up jerseys was the little McLeod jersey touched her belly and smiled.

“We get to see your mom play today, Little Love, she’s really good, but she gets nervous so we have to send her good vibes, okay?”

~

Before the game started, Steph was sitting next to Ella on the couch when she asked, "Have you felt her move yet?"

"Yeah all the time, but she hasn't in a little while," Ella said poking at her belly, "I think she’s asleep or something, I’m not sure. It’s weird actually because when Erin’s here and she’s talking, she moves a lot more.”

B came in from the kitchen with a glass of water in hand and asked, “Is Mia Willow what you’re gonna name her?”

Ella looked at her, confused, until she remembered that she had written the name on a sticky note and stuck it to the fridge, “We’re thinking about it, it’s the only one that both of us have liked so far.”

“I played with a girl called Mia when we were little,” B said, “She was nice enough, but she thought she was the shit because she and Mia Hamm shared the same name.”

“Damnit, Mia Hamm,” Ella sighed, “We can’t name her Mia.”

“You can name her whatever you want!” B said, realizing her mistake, “Mia’s a great name, people won’t think Mia Hamm unless some idiot like me says something.”

“I don’t know, I still really like Mia, but the Hamm thing isn’t ideal.”

Player introductions started with Mexico, so they quieted down. Then they moved to Canada, they called Sincy’s name and then there was Erin with her bun and pre wrap headband smiling away. Ella was always so proud to watch her wife play for her country even though it meant her being away for a while. She felt herself smiling like an idiot, and she heard B, Steph, and Haley making fun of her, “You are still just as bad as you were when we watched her the first time.”

“I’m proud of her, shoot me,” Ella replied sticking her tongue out, “Remember whose couch you’re sitting on.”

“But you wouldn’t kick us out because you wouldn’t have anybody to watch the game with,” Steph said.

“Shut up, I’m trying to watch the game!” B said from her spot on the floor with Max.

Canada got on the board early with a goal from Sincy and Erin came up with a big save but it looked like she might have gotten a boot to the head, and for a second, all three were cheering for her. Until she didn’t get up. Ella reached for Steph’s hand, and whispered, “C’mon babe. Get up. Please, please, please get up.”

“McLeod is down,” the announcer called, “It looks like like they’re calling out the medical team to look at her.”

“I can’t even watch this,” Ella sighed, looking down at her lap, “Is she up yet?”

“It doesn’t really look like it, she’s on her back,” Steph said, “It looks like she’s got quite a bit of blood coming from her temple.”

“Stop Steph, you’re not really helping the situation here,” Haley said, then she turned to Ella, “Ella, she’s conscious. She does have a gash on her forehead, but she’s awake.”

“She’s going to give me a heart attack,” Ella said twisting her wedding ring around her finger, “It’s worse because I’m not there to make sure she’s okay. I have to sit here and wait for somebody to call me.”

“Ella, they’re taking her off on a stretcher.”

“Jesus,” she said biting her lip, looking up to see her wife laid out on a stretcher, blood pouring from her head. She looked back at her hands, it was too much for her to watch.

“Wait, Ella look she’s giving the thumbs up she’s telling you she’s gonna be okay!”

Ella looked up in time to see Erin leaving the field, for the whole rest of the game Ella was out of her head. Erin had been injured plenty of times before, but she never bled that much and she was usually there so she could be there with her. Erin had only been injured like that once before and Ella was on the field with her so she knew right away that her wife would be fine. But this time she had to wait for somebody from Canada Soccer or Erin herself to call her and let her know that everything was going to be fine. In the end, Canada came away with a win and Ella was glad that they won, but she still hadn’t heard about Erin. Steph and B watched Ella pace back and forth waiting for her phone to ring. They did their best to try to calm her, but it was to no avail, Ella wasn’t going to be happy until she knew what exactly was going on with her wife.

After what felt like the longest hour of her life a picture of Erin’s face lit up her phone, before it even had a chance to finish its first ring, Ella picked up, “You almost gave me a heart attack! Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry, I know I scared you. I’m fine, just a few stitches.”

“Honey, it looked like you were out cold and you only got a few stitches?”

“Okay, I might have a concussion, but I’m okay. Are you okay?”

“Better now that I know that you’re okay, but I was not good for quite a while. I don’t think I watched the game at all. I was so worried about you.”

“I can’t talk for long, I told the doctor in the ER that I needed to let my pregnant wife know that I was okay because I know you were out of your head, and that I needed to make sure everything was fine with you and she handed the phone right over.”

“Don’t do that to me again!”

“I can’t guarantee that, you know I wish I could, but I can’t.”

“How many stitches?”

Erin paused, “I think there’s 28.”

“Erin Katrina! That’s more than a few!” Ella scolded.

“I don’t want you to worry! I’m going to be okay and I’m coming home tomorrow.”

“I can’t not worry about you!”

“I know, I have to go the doctor is looking at me but, I’ll be home soon so you can hover over me and say that you’re not because you refuse to believe that you hover.”

“I love you.”

“Love you more, bye.”

“Bye. Call me before you take off.”

“I will, don’t worry,” Erin said before hanging up.

“So,” Steph asked, “What’s the verdict?”

“She got 28 stitches and she says she might have a concussion, but I think she’s downplaying it because she doesn’t want me to worry too much.”

“But she’s going to be alright?”

“I mean she’s probably going to miss a game or two with the season starting soon, but maybe not, either way I would rather have her sit out given that she’s all stitched up and concussed. But otherwise, she said she’s gonna be fine.”

“Are you okay?”

Ella sighed, “Better now, I’m glad there’s people up there to take care of her until she flies back to Houston.”

~

Erin called in the early morning, waking Ella up to let her know that she was about to take off, and that she would be in Houston in a few hours. Ella sleepily responded that she would be there to pick her up and told her to have a safe flight before hanging up and falling asleep again. She woke up a few hours later to Max barking at her.

“What’s up, bud?”

He cocked his head and looked at her.

“Do you have to go outside?”

He barked and took off for the door.

Ella got out of bed, stretched, walked into the kitchen and grabbed his leash out of the drawer, and hooked it to his collar, she and Max walked through the hall and down the stairs, to the grass. Max sniffed around for a while and did his business.”

After Ella had taken Max out, she took a long shower and got dressed before leaving to pick Erin up at the airport. She parked and got out so that she could meet Erin in the terminal.

Erin stopped by baggage claim before walking toward the crowded terminal in search of her wife. When she spotted Ella, she was playing with her wedding ring looking off in the distance far beyond where Erin. Erin picked up her speed walking toward her, and finally when Ella saw her with her bandage wrapped around her head and her face softened as she walked toward her. Ella opened her arms so that she could hug her, Erin wrapped her arms around her neck.

“Honey, your poor head,” Ella said, softly,  leaning up to kiss her before taking her hand and heading toward the door, “And you’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’m alive, I’m home, I’ll be okay.”

Typically, after picking Erin up, Ella would let her drive. But since she had a concussion, Ella took the driver seat and reached for Erin’s hand, “I’m glad you’re okay, but you nearly killed me.”

“I know, I’m really sorry about that. You’re going to have an even worse heart attack when you see what’s under the bandage.”

“I cannot handle you right now.”

“You can never handle me. I’m too hot to handle,” Erin joked, winking at her. Ella laughed and Erin asked, “How was your week?”

Ella reminded her that it wasn’t technically a week that she was away, and then told her about work and her lunch dates with the team and what she did while she was at home, making sure to mention that she read to Little Love and that she would keep doing it until Erin was given the okay for her to start again.

“I can do Love You Forever without a book, I’ve read it so many times that I know it by heart.”

“You know it by heart?”

“I grew up listening to that book, I have a line of it tattooed on my body, El. Of course I know it.”

“Well, maybe you can tell it to us later,” Ella said, squeezing her wife’s hand.

~

Erin opened the door to their apartment and Max rushed to her and she knelt down and let him lick all over her face, “I missed you too, bud!” She laughed before setting him down and asking if Ella could help her change the gauze over her stitches, Ella agreed and led Erin to the bathroom.

Ella made her sit on the edge of the bathtub, and gently took gauze off of Erin’s forehead to see all twenty eight of Erin’s stitches, stretching from the end of her right eyebrow to the middle of her forehead. Ella gasped, “Honey! Your poor head!”

Erin bit her lip and looked up at her, “I know it looks bad, but they had a plastic surgeon do them, so the scar won’t be too bad. But it does look pretty bad right now.”

Ella set her hand on the side of Erin’s face, “Well it’s a good thing that Nurse Ella is here to take care of you.”

Erin smiled, sheepishly, “I’m so lucky.”

“You bet your sweet butt you are,” she said reaching for the peroxide and a cotton ball, “I’m really sorry about this,” she gently touched the cotton ball to Erin’s forehead and she winced, “Look, I’m done,” she said, putting a new strip of gauze over the stitches and kissing her cheek. “Is Chinese good for dinner?” Ella asked as she put the peroxide away, “I know it’s packed with MSG and it’s bad for you, but I’m having some really intense cravings for it. The baby is begging for it.”

Ella was giving her the look that she could never say no to, she sighed, “I suppose we can have Chinese. Anything for my wife.”

“Thanks,” she said, kissing her cheek and walking out of the bathroom, “We can cook tomorrow.” Ella went to the kitchen and opened the drawer where they kept their take out menus, she pulled out one for Chinese and called the number, after ordering, she sat on the couch and waited for Erin to come out from the bathroom.

They settled onto the couch and watched tv until their food came. Ella fell asleep after their dinner, Erin looked over at her and held her hand and thought about how lucky she was to have such an amazing person in her life. 


	21. Chapter 21

That night, Erin woke up to Ella snoring, which was new for her, Ella wasn’t ever the one to snore, it was usually her who snored, sometimes loud enough to wake herself up. She had one hand on her belly, her mouth slightly open, her hair was strewn every which way on the pillow, Erin thought about waking her up to let her know that she was snoring, but her wife looked so peaceful that she decided not to disturb her, even though this ungodly loud sound was coming from her. Erin never in her life thought she would get this lucky to have a person who loved her as much as Ella did. To have a family of her own. When she was younger, she never believed she deserved anything or anybody as good and kind and beautiful as Ella. Ella taught her more about loving herself more than anybody before. As she laid there and watched her snore, she couldn’t help but be thankful for whatever power it might have been that brought them together. Having her in her life was gift. Everyday with her was an adventure and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She loved Ella with her whole heart and she could only hope that Ella felt as lucky to have her as she did. Ella stirred in her sleep, turned over, and snored even louder. Erin knew better than to wake a sleeping Ella, but there was no chance that she was going to get any sleep with the sound of her wife’s snoring. She sighed and grabbed her pillow and as quietly as she could, walked out into the living room and fell asleep on the couch.

At three in the morning, Ella woke up to go to the bathroom and  noticed that Erin wasn’t asleep next to her. Concerned, she investigated and found her wife sound asleep on the couch, she knelt next to her wife, “Honey,” she said running a hand through her hair.

Erin groaned, “Huh?”

“What are you doing on the couch?”

She opened her eyes and looked at her sleepily, “You were snoring.”

“I do not snore. That’s you.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Sure, what do I get when I’m right?”

Ella yawned, and thought for a second before saying, “I’ll support City for one game. But what do I get when I’m right?”

She thought for a second, “A foot rub.”

“Two foot rubs.”

“You’re on.”

“Good,” she said, as she got up and reached her hand out for Erin, “Come back to bed.”

She took her hand and followed her back to their bed. Ella cuddled into her and immediately fell back to sleep. Erin, on the other hand, stayed awake a little longer to watch Ella. Sleeping people were always fascinating to her, so when she couldn’t fall asleep late at night she watched Ella sleep quite a lot. It was something she was pretty sure that her wife didn’t know she did and she planned to keep it that way.~

The next morning Ella woke up before Erin, she quietly got out of bed and padded over to the bathroom to shower for work. She finished her shower, got out, and immediately began to freeze. Erin liked to keep their apartment really cold, like Canada she said, which she normally didn’t have a problem with, she usually ran hot anyway, but fresh out of a very hot shower, she was not into it. She wrapped her hair in a towel and ran out from the bathroom and toward the closet. Erin was just starting to wake up, she laid silent as she watched her wife put on a her underwear.

Ella turned around to see her watching her, she said, “Good morning, love.”

In her scratchy just woke up voice, “Good morning, sunshine,” she said opening her arms to Ella.

She walked over to her wife, and crawled back into bed next to her, “I’m supposed to be getting ready for work you know.”

“I know, but you don’t have to leave for a while and I want to cuddle with you,” Erin said.

“I suppose I could cuddle for a few minutes,” she said as Erin rested her head on her chest. They laid there for a while, Erin listening to the beat of Ella’s heart and drawing absentmindedly on her bare bump, when she asked, “Do you ever want to do this?”

“Do what?” Erin asked.

“This,” she said gesturing at her belly, “Be pregnant.”

Erin bit her lip and thought for a second, “I don’t know, you make it look so easy, you know.”

She laughed, “I make it look easy?”

“You make everything look easy, but I’m kind of afraid to do it because Megan had a hard time, she was always sick and those kinds of things are usually hereditary. Plus it would mean that I would have to take a lot of time away from soccer, and I know it sounds selfish, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that in the near future.”

“It’s not selfish at all. I was ready to be done with soccer because having a baby was what I wanted, what we wanted. If you don’t ever want to be pregnant that’s totally fine.”

“I mean maybe eventually, if we want more kids, just not soon.”

“I think I want more than one but, I’m not sure if I’m going to want to do this whole thing over again, ask me when she’s here. I’m thinking I might, but this is the easy part right now, or so I’ve heard. But there’s more than one way to make a family, so I’m not worried about it.”

~

Their first home game was in a few days which meant that it was time to shoot the Ella and Erin show, but since very few people knew that Ella worked for Houston it was going to be a bit of a surprise for everyone when it came out.

They got everything set up in the locker room and started filming. It started out with just Erin, “Hello everyone and welcome to The Erin Show! It’s just me today since my partner in crime rudely decided to retire. But, I have some good news, I did find a new co-host! Why don’t you come out here new co-host!” Ella stuck her left hand out in front of the camera, “Oh who could it be? I’ll give you a hint: She’s the new commentator for the Dash. We have the same initials, but she’s not as cool as I am. C’mon new co-host.”

“Hello I’m back! And much cooler than Erin.” Ella cheered, as she took the seat next to Erin.

“Play the old intro because The Erin and Ella show is back!”

“It’s the Ella and Erin show, but I know everyone missed us.”

“They missed me, you not so much,” Erin joked.

“Anyway,” Ella said in her awkward style, “ Just a few updates before we get back to the show like normal, there is a chance I will not be here toward the end of the season because of this little nugget, but until then we’re gonna be here every home game.”

“Yes we are going to try to be more consistent this season, aren’t we?”

Ella nodded. “So, now that all that’s all out on the table, we’re gonna go back to the show now.”

“Ella here is the new commentator for us, so I thought we should bring her back and ask her some questions even though we all know her very, very well.”

“Oh boy, what did I sign up for?”

Erin laughed, “You signed up for a good time. We’ll start with an easy question, describe your favorite Dash goalkeeper.”

“Oh she’s pretty cool, she laughs at my jokes and she’s very smart.”

“Thank you!” Erin said, flattered.

“Oh no, not you, B. Bianca is my favorite goal keeper.”

Erin was indignant, "Okay, what 3 people on the Dash would you bring to a desert island?"

Ella thought for a second, "I would bring K because she could probably make me look good at all time, and I would bring B because she's smart and could probably get us off the island, and I guess I would bring you because you would make us laugh and then if there was something that would try to eat us we could feed you to them."

"Wow so kind of you."

"I know," After doing an accent challenge and asking a question for the ticket giveaway, they ended the show. Ella leaned over from her chair and kissed Erin on the cheek, "Was I too mean?"

"I think it was just right."

"Good," she said as she stood up, "I have some work to do in the office, so I'm gonna head out."

"When are you done?"

Ella leaned against the door frame, "Not sure, an hour, maybe two."

"Okay, I'm gonna catch a ride with one of the girls," Erin said, she decided that she was going to surprise Ella with dinner and flowers.

~

She walked into the office and over to her desk to find a sticky note with a phone number and season ticket holder, minor crisis written on it. She called and found an angry woman on the other end. Once she found out what the lady was angry about she apologized for the error on their side, fixed the problem, and hung up with a much happier lady. They always passed angry customers to Ella because she could fix their problems in much less time and make them happy more quickly than anyone else, even though it wasn’t part of her job description. She read a few things and added them to her notes before picking up her things and saying goodbye to the few people that were still there and leaving the office.

~

Erin wasn't sure how much time she had before Ella got home, so she stopped at the florist down the street and bought a bouquet of lilies, Ella's favorite, and walked back the the apartment. She put the flowers in a vase and thought about what to make for dinner. She decided to make chicken Marsala and tidied up a little bit before Ella got back.

When Ella opened the door, Max ran up to her and started licking her face. Erin walked over from the kitchen and said hello, but Ella was still paying attention to the dog, "Even after all these years, he's still stealing my thunder."

"He's the reason why I gave you a chance in the first place," she smiled as she stood up,  wrapped her arms around her wife's waist, and kissed her, "Hello, love."

"Welcome home."

"What are you cooking?"

"Chicken Marsala."

"I love chicken Marsala!"

"I know, that's why I'm making it."

Erin walked back into the kitchen, as Ella followed in behind her, "What are those?" She asked when she saw the flowers that Erin set on the counter.

"They're for you, just because."

"Just because?"

"Yes just because I love you and you deserve them."

Ella grinned, "You're the best."

"Anything for you my love," Erin said from the stove.

Ella hugged her from behind and kissed her cheek, and said, "Thank you," before walking to the bathroom, "You cleaned too?"

"I did."

"How did I get so lucky?"

"I try."

Ella laughed and winced and put a hand on her belly.

"Is something wrong?" Erin asked, concerned.

"I don't think so. I've been sore all day, I think it's just because the baby’s getting bigger. Nothing to worry about."

Erin looked at her, still worried, "Are you sure?"

She reached across the counter and took her hand, "Honey, everything is fine. The baby is fine, she's kicking, I'm fine, just sore. I read that it's supposed to happen. It's just one of those things people don't tell you about, it's a good thing though, it means that she's growing."

"I just don't like seeing you in pain."

Ella smiled, "I know, but this is only uncomfortable."

“Promise?”

Ella nodded.

Erin sighed in relief, “Okay."

"You do know that at the end of this there's gonna be something painful. It's sort of required to get the baby. And you’re gonna have to be there or I’m gonna have to kill you."

"Yes, I know."

"Hey dinner's ready, right?" She asked, Erin nodded, "Good, can we please eat? Growing a person is hard work and I'm starving."

Erin smiled at her, "Of course."

After dinner, Ella was laying on the couch with her head in Erin's lap, she was on her phone, looking at a list of names, "What about Aubrey?"

"I don't think I like it more than Mia."

"I'm not totally sold on Mia yet. I don't know, she just doesn't feel like a Mia."

"So are we taking it off the table?"

"No, I'm just not sure if it's her name."

"So you just want more choices?"

"I guess, what do you think about Cassie?"

"Cassie Willow McLeod. I like it, we should put up there next to Mia."

"Okay," she said, still scrolling through the list, "What about Eve? I'm not too big on Eve, but I really like Evie but I met a little girl once a long time ago who was called Evie and and she was the cutest little thing."

"I like it, but I'm kinda scared to give her an E name."

"Why?"

"We're both EM and she would be EM and if we have another after her, which is more than likely, and I kinda feel like we'd have to give that one an E name too."

"They're our kids Erin we can name they whatever we want. If we both end up really liking a name that starts with E then that's what we'll call her and if the next one doesn't get an E name that's fine. Who cares? There aren't any rules and we're not obligated to name them anything."

Erin nodded and thought for a second, "What about Ivy? It's close to Evie, but it's not quite Evie."

"Oh I like that too! But Ivy Willow is super naturey."

"We could use another version of William in place of Willow, like Willa or maybe Wilhelmina?"

Ella thought for a second, "I'll think about it. I really like Ivy," she said, as she ran her hand across her belly, "She's kicking, right here."

Erin put her hand where Ella was pointing and said, "Hey Little Love, what do we call you?"

Ella smiled as she watched her wife talk to their baby.

"Are you a Mia or an Ivy or maybe a Cassie or something else?"

Ella felt the baby basically flip over, "I don't think she knows."

"It's okay if you don't know baby girl, do you want to read?"

Ella nodded.

Erin walked into their bedroom and returned with Love You Forever, Ella put her head back in Erin's lap as Erin began to read. Listening to Erin read to their daughter was far and away her favorite part of everyday. Nothing was better than hearing her wife talk to their baby, it, made her feel warm inside. It was like nothing mattered in the world but what Erin was reading. After she was done reading, they stayed on the couch and talked about their days and about the Dash and how they thought they were going to do during their season.

Ella fell asleep in Erin's lap while she played with her hair. Erin decided to let her sleep for a little bit before waking her up so they could go to bed. She turned on the tv and watched an hour of HGTV when Ella started snoring. She reached for her phone and started recording her wife, she made sure she got a few good loud snores in before she gently said, "El."

Ella sighed, "Huh?"

"You were snoring," she said as she reached for her wife's hand.

"No way."

"Babe, I recorded it."

"No you didn't."

She handed her the phone, "Read it and weep, sunshine. City plays Man U this weekend and I'm thrilled you'll be in a City jersey."

Ella sighed in defeat, "I can't believe that I snore. I don't snore. You snore yourself awake, I don't do this!"

"Must be one of the many joys of pregnancy," Erin laughed.

"Yeah you're hysterical," Ella sighed, as she stood up, "I'm going to bed now."

"I'll be there in a minute," she said tapping away at her phone

"Erin Katrina if you post that anywhere you're going to be on the couch for the next month,” Ella threatened.

“I’m right behind you dear,” Erin called as she followed her wife to bed.


	22. Chapter 22

Ella woke up long before her wife, she laid in bed and watched Erin as she slept. She loved every single detail of her face, from the freckle by her nose to the little bump on her forehead. Her greasy hair was fanned out all over the pillow, Ella thought that she needed to remind her to wash her hair. It was one of the endless list of things that she loved about her, she was always doing something that made her too busy to wash her hair, between soccer and art she managed to avoid washing her hair for days at a time. But when she would finally wash her hair, it was beautiful and chocolate brown and Ella adored it. She loved Erin with her dirty hair, but there was nothing better than Erin with clean hair. When they would cuddle right after Erin showered, she would smell the top of Erin’s head, and it was the best thing she’s ever smelled, she smelled like home. There was something about the way that Erin smelled, especially when she was clean that made her feel safe and warm.

But Erin was a chronic sleep cuddler, she had a habit of turning towards Ella and throwing her arm over her and trapping her in bed until she woke up. Usually, she didn’t mind it, but on this morning, she really had to go to the bathroom and shower. She tried to wiggle out from under Erin’s arm, with no luck, “Honey,” she whispered, “Move your arm.”

Erin groaned and moved her arm enough to let Ella out of bed before rolling in to the middle of the bed hugging one of Ella’s pillows.

Ella headed into their bathroom and was looking at herself in the mirror when she saw them, spreading out like the roots from her tree on her side. Bright red and on either side of her hips. Stretch marks. She knew that stretch marks happened, but she wasn’t really expecting them to happen to her. She studied them, they were still small, their bright red color made them noticeable. She didn’t like them, and she very much wanted them gone.

When she finished her shower, she felt better, but she still felt self conscious about her body. She immediately searched for a top and threw on a pair of shorts before crawling back into bed with a half asleep Erin.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Erin said sleepily.

“Morning,” she sighed.

Erin looked over at her, concerned, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“If you’re upset, it’s not nothing,” Erin said, sitting up and opening her arms to Ella.

Ella just shook her head, “It’s stupid.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t feel pretty.”

Erin raised her eyebrows, before softly saying, “Well I think you look more gorgeous than ever.”

“I’m getting fat though,” Ella said leaning into Erin

“El, you’re not getting fat.”

“Yes I am! Look!” she said quietly, lifting her shirt up to show Erin her the marks on her hips.

“Sweetie, you’re not getting fat.”

"You're lying," Ella said turning away from her.

"I'm not and you’re not getting fat, look at me, love. I don't want you to be worried about how you look. You're growing another person. Those little marks on your belly are proof, they're not a bad thing. You know what?"

Ella looked at her, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I think they're beautiful. They make you even more beautiful. Which I honestly didn’t believe was possible but you amaze me everyday. And if our little girl ever asks about the little lines on her mom's belly, she's gonna know that you got them because you loved her so much when she was growing in your belly that there wasn't enough space to hold all the love so it came out on your skin. And she'll be so proud that you're her mom because you'll be the bravest, kindest, and most loving person she'll ever know. I know because that's how I feel about you and a few little stretch marks won't ever change who you are or how beautiful you are. You're more beautiful now than the day I married you and that's saying something because you were pretty gorgeous when we got married."

Erin's words made her feel better, and she said, "Thank you," before curling into a ball at Erin's side.

"Always, my love," she said, as she played with Ella's hair.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, thank you for being my rock.”

“Of course, I love you.”

“I love you too. I know I just had a crisis about gaining weight, but the baby’s asking for donuts.”

“Is the baby asking or are you asking?”

“She’s begging.”

“Really?”

“Swear to god, it’s the only thing I want to eat.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be over the craving thing?”

“I never really had them, you know, because I was puking so much. So I think it’s okay for me to crave donuts,” Erin finally caved and got dressed and they left to walk to Gus’ donut shop, “I honestly can’t believe I’m more than half done being pregnant.”

“I know, it’s been really quick.”

Ella sighed, nervously, “I’ve been thinking that maybe we should stay in Houston until after she’s  born, I know we originally wanted to have her back in Canada, but I just don’t know if I want to go on a big long road trip when I’m super pregnant, like what if we’re in the middle of nowhere Idaho or something and there’s no hospital? At least here we know where we are and we have a place. And I mean we both have Canadian citizenship so she’s gonna be Canadian either way, just not born there.”

“I  understand, but is road tripping with a newborn gonna be any easier?”

“I mean maybe not, but I don’t wanna be somewhere where I don’t know anything and having a baby, at least here we know the doctor and we know what’s what here and I also know that if we make it to the playoffs this year, you’re gonna be here until the the middle of at least September anyway and you know, I’m due at the end of August. It just makes more sense to just have her here and stay for a little bit. Maybe we didn’t time this the best, especially because my mom said Masar babies like to come a couple weeks early and that’s still the regular season, and you might be away. So what I guess I’m saying is that I just want to stay here until after she’s born, I know we’d have to pay an extra month’s rent, but I think it’s worth it just in case because you guys are looking really good this season and I think you’re gonna make it to the playoffs and I-,”

“El, you’re rambling, I’m totally fine staying here until after she’s born, but you  know my parents are gonna fly down the moment they find out you’re in labor, your mom too.”

“I know,” she sighed.

“And your mom and my mom are going to stay here as long as we need them to. Whatever you want to do is fine with me. Just so long as you don’t go into labor while I’m gone.”

“It’s up to this little one,” Ella said, putting a hand on her belly, “I wish I could promise you. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll listen to us when we tell her not to come until you’re here, but who knows.”

“I wish I did,” Erin said, as she opened the door.

“Yeah, me too,” she sighed.

They walked up to the counter, “Y’all know it’s not Sunday, right?” Gus asked.

Erin laughed, “Yes, but Ella begged, so I caved.”

Gus laughed, “What can I get my favorite customers?” he asked looking at Ella, as she studied the donuts before deciding on powdered raspberry filled before he turned to Erin and asked, “What can I get for you?”

“I’m just gonna have a coffee.”

“No donut?”

“Not today, we have a game tomorrow, gotta eat better.”

“I’m not sure if I remembered to tell you girls, but I bought my granddaughter and me some season tickets, so we’ll be at every game cheering for the Dash.”

“Thank you so much, Gus. I don’t think you know how much we love having people at the games cheering for us,” Erin said as she paid.

“You’re so welcome, she is so excited to see y’all. I tell her all about how you come to the shop and she gets so jealous.”

“Well, I’ll have to make sure I find you guys after the game tomorrow.”

“Really? She’s gonna be so excited!”

Erin smiled and told him it was no problem as he handed her Ella’s donut and her coffee. She followed Ella to a table in the window and handed the donut to her.

Ella took a bite and reveled in its goodness, “Never in my life has a donut been this good.”

“You’re welcome,” Erin laughed over her coffee.

“For what?”

“Buying you a donut.”

“Oh, yeah, thank you, you are so kind,” Ella said sarcastically.

Erin winked at her, “No problem!”

“So what are your plans for the day?”

Erin sipped her coffee, “I’m probably gonna paint a little bit and then I think I’m gonna go on a quick run and then I’m gonna cook us some dinner and I was thinking that  we could watch a movie or something. What about you?”

Ella sighed, “Well, I have to do some prep before I call the game tomorrow, you know every detail that anybody would possibly ever need about anybody. I have everything on everybody here, it’s just the girls from Boston that I need to make some notes on. But after that, I’m pretty free. I would like to take you on a date soon though. Maybe day after tomorrow?”

“I don’t know, I’ll have to check my calendar.”

“Babe, I am your calendar, I know you’re free. Don’t play hard to get.”

Erin reached across the table and smiled at her, “A date sounds wonderful.”

“Good, I like taking you out.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Maybe dinner and a movie? You know, we’ve only got a few more months before we can’t go without having somebody to worry about.”

“Sounds perfect.”                 

Ella loved taking her wife out on dates, mostly because it was rare that Erin would let her. At the beginning, Erin was always the one to take Ella out, and Erin liked treating her girl like a princess, even though she called her a peasant. But one day, just before they left Chicago, Ella knocked on her door and told her to change out  of her sweat pants because they were going out and she was paying. Ella took her to a pizza place and then they got ice cream and people watched until it got dark out.  It was perfect, she loved every second she got to spend with Erin, just doing little things like sitting on a bench in a park and talking about nothing.


	23. Chapter 23

The morning of their game, Erin got up early to do her heart math and was making breakfast when Ella came out of their room wearing nothing but an oversized Canada shirt and a pair of underwear. She kissed Erin good morning before grabbing a glass of water and sitting at their table, “Hey, sunshine,” Erin said softly, as she breakfast on the table.

Ella mumbled something, taking a bite of her eggs.

“Are you going on the walk with us?”

She nodded, still sleepy.

“What’s going on?” Erin asked, concerned, “You’re never this sleepy in the morning.”

Ella shrugged, “Baby was having a dance party, couldn’t sleep.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do.”

“It’s okay,” she sighed, “It’s what I signed up for.”

“I know, babe, but I feel bad. You need to sleep.”

“Oh believe me, I know. I’ll nap later, but I have to shower,” she said, putting her dishes in the sink before kissing Erin’s cheek and walking off toward their bathroom.

Once Ella was done with her shower, they got dressed and left their apartment for the practice field.

They met the rest of the team at the field. When they arrived, the rest of the team was already there. They said hello to Erin before immediately turning to Ella and fawning over her bump. She had gotten to the point where it looked like she had stuck a soccer ball under her shirt, and the whole team was obsessed with it. They told her nearly every time they saw her that she was the cutest pregnant lady ever.

“Look Ella!” Moe shouted, turning to face them , “We’re twins!” She had a ball shoved under her shirt.

Ella laughed, “It  looks good on you, Moe!”

“Not nearly as good as you. You’re totally working it.”

Before Ella could say thank you, the rest of the team had balls under their shirts and she was laughing so hard that she was crying.

When Randy showed up, he said, “Dang it y’all, if I have to find a whole new team because y’all followed Ella’s poor example and retired and did that-”

“Love you too Randy,” Ella said sarcastically.

He put his arm over her shoulders, “You know I’m joking, Ella. We’re thrilled for you and Erin. You know you and that kid of yours always have a home here,” before walking off to attempt to get the team together for their walk.

The girls were running around bumping their soccer ball bellies into each other. Erin was standing next to Ella watching the madness unfold, she leaned over to Ella and whispered, “Look what we started.”

Ella shrugged, “I think it’s funny. I needed a good laugh. I want a picture,” she handed Erin her phone and walked over to some of the girls and they posed.

Ella took her phone back and posted it on instagram: “@emasar3: Thanks for the laugh, love these fools #soccermoms”

When they were in Houston, families were allowed to go on team walks, so there were sometimes a few significant others, and Jess always brought her son. Somebody usually picked him up and carried him on their shoulders. Dogs were also welcome, but they decided to leave Max at home.

As always, Erin and Ella were at the back of the pack, holding hands and laughing at the younger girls’ antics. Carli stayed behind with them, “I don’t think I ever joked around this much when we were younger.”

Ella thought back, “No, you never did. You were always so serious. If I didn’t know you any better, I would’ve thought you were a real bitch.”

Carli looked offended.

“Hey,  I never said you were a bitch! I’m just saying that back when we were young, you didn’t really leave a lot of room for fun. The girls now don’t think you’re a bitch, you’ve lightened up a lot since the last time we played together.”

“Aw, thanks, Ella. You’ve grown a lot since the last time we played together,” Carli smirked, gesturing toward her bump.

“I’m pregnant, you asshole!” Ella laughed.

“You know I love you and I can’t wait to be Little McLeod’s godmother.”

Erin raised her eyebrow, “You can be her Houston godmother. We’d probably have to name one of our sisters as her godmother, they’d pitch a fit otherwise.”

“It’s fine, I get it.”

“Also, I don’t know how much I want the woman who single handedly won the World Cup for America around our kid. If you were Canadian, then maybe I’d consider it.”

Carli laughed, “Maybe it’ll make her more in touch with her mom’s American heritage.”

Ella sighed, “Alright, you can be her American godmother, but she’s  gonna have a Canadian one too.”

“Good, maybe I’ll get her to play for the U.S.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Erin,” Ella said giving her a look, “What have we talked about?”

“We will support her no matter what country she decides to play for if she plays soccer at all.”

“Right,” she said, wincing and rubbing the lower part of her belly.

“El, are you okay?” Erin asked concerned.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s those growing pains again. They’re gone now. I think it was from walking.”

“Do you want to go back?”

“Honey, I’m fine! I promise. We’re gonna finish this walk and then we’re gonna go home and I’m gonna take a nap.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! There’s nothing to worry about! Why don’t you go talk to Randy?”

“I guess,” Erin sighed, letting go of her hand.

“Hey,” she shouted, “I love you.”

Erin smiled over her shoulder as all the girls made puking noises, “Love you too.”

Carli was laughing at the girls' noises she turned to Ella, "You guys are disgusting. Your poor kid is going to be so embarrassed when she brings her friends home and they see you guys making out on the couch like teenagers.”

Ella gave her a confused look, “We don’t make out on the couch like teenagers!”

“Maybe not on the couch, but I distinctly remember one night when I stayed on your couch and you were making some really strange sounds that I know for sure don’t come from sleeping people.”

“Carl, you’re over exaggerating.”

“I wish I was! You guys are the worst at being quiet at anything. Even sleeping I’ve roomed with both of you and you don’t snore but Erin does. Sometimes you talk in your sleep.”

“Okay so maybe we’re gonna embarrass her, but it’s nothing like what I had to deal with when I was a kid.”

“That’s true, she’s lucky she’s got two parents as disgustingly in love as you two. A lot of kids aren’t that lucky.”

“She’s also lucky to have a super badass American godmother to show her how to be cool, since I already know we’re gonna stop being cool when she gets to be a teenager.”

“Yes, of course. I know I’m super cool and badass, I won a world cup you know.”

“Don’t compliment yourself too much, that’s not super cool or badass,” Ella said slowing to a stop in the middle of the path. Carli looked at her, concerned, “It’s nothing, she’s just kicking a lot and I can feel her elbows hitting my lungs.”

“Are you sure you’re okay? Should I get Erin?”

“I’m really fine! Look we’re almost back, don’t worry.”

“I’m trusting you.”

“Thanks, you’re so kind!” Ella laughed.

“I know.”

~

When they made it back, Ella climbed into the passenger seat of the car, and Erin looked at her funny, “Are you feeling okay? You never let me drive.”

“I know, but she’s kicking a lot right now and I can’t really deal with it and drive at the same time. I can feel all of her little limbs moving in my belly,” she said taking her wife’s hand and putting it on her belly, “This is her head, she’s balled up right now, but earlier I could feel her elbows in my lungs.”

Erin was wide eyed, “No way!”

“Yes way! Now please, can we go home? You feel more when we get home.”

“You just want to nap.” Erin smiled over at her, she always knew that Ella’s favorite part of game days was the pre game nap, even when she wasn’t playing.

“So maybe that’s a little true, but I also want to cuddle with you.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Ella leaned over and kissed her neck, “I might want to do some other things, too.”

“You do?”

Ella nodded, and with that Erin started the jeep and peeled out of the parking lot. Ella laughed, “It always works.”

~

When they got back to their apartment, Ella took her wife’s hand and all but dragged her up the stairs to the door. Once the door closed, Ella pushed her up against the door and kissed her neck again. She thought about leaving a mark, but people could see her neck so she moved down toward her collarbone and left quite a few marks. Erin wanted her to keep going, but she knew that if they kept up with it that they wouldn’t be able to get the requisite pre game nap in, so she put her hands on Ella’s hips and pulled her away, “We need to stop.”

Ella gave her a pleading look.

“You know we have an actual nap we need to take, you know.”

“Please, Erin, I’m desperate,” she gave her a look that she always had a hard time saying no to, “Please.”

“If we’re quick, then we can.”

She went back to kissing Erin’s neck, “I’ll be quick, I swear.”

~

Erin woke up before Ella and decided to let her wife sleep for a little before she woke her up. Her hair, which she usually kept swept to the side was strewn all over her pillow, one hand was resting on her bump, the other was holding tight to Erin’s hand. She reached over and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. Ella sighed and turned to face her, smiling, “Hi.”

“Hello, sunshine.”

Ella smiled and brought their hands to her lips and kissed her knuckles, “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Erin whispered, kissing her, “We have to get ready.”

“I know, I will in a minute,” she said, as she watched her get out of bed, “ But I’m appreciating art.”

“There’s nothing on the wall over here,” Erin looked at her, confused.

“Honey, I know,” Ella laughed, “I’m talking about your butt, it’s a really good one.”

Erin walked over to Ella’s side of the bed and kissed her, “Sometimes I wonder if you only married me because you liked my butt.”

“I liked your brain too, actually, I love every little bit of you. That’s why I married you,” she said, leaning on the doorframe of the bathroom, watching Erin get ready, “Your butt was just like a bonus because I won the ultimate prize.”

“I don’t know, I mean, I got pretty lucky too, you know,” Erin responded, tying her hair into a knot on her head.

“Oh, I know, I’m a catch. Even though I’m ballooning up to the size of a whale.”

Erin turned around and set her hands on Ella’s hips, “Honey, you are not ballooning up to the size of a whale! You’re growing another person, that’s no small task. And you know I love you and think you’re beautiful no matter what you look like or what size you are.”

Ella looked up at her and nodded.

She moved her hands from Ella’s hips and let them come to rest on her belly, “You are the bravest person I’ve ever met. To retire at the height of your career and to do this, to make us a family. You’re my biggest inspiration, you and this little one right here are why I do what I do. I don’t play for me anymore. I haven’t played for me since I met you. I’m always trying to make you proud of me, because I still have no idea how I got so lucky.”

“You’re not half as lucky as I am. I married the best, most talented, kindest, most beautiful woman in the world and she is way, way, way too good for me,” the baby kicked at Erin’s hand, and Ella laughed, “She’s saying, ‘Moms stop being cheesey, you’re gonna make me sick’.”

Erin kissed her nose before looking down at Ella’s belly and saying, “One day, she’ll understand when she finds her one.”

She half smiled, “There’s a long time before that happens.”

“Thank god, I don’t think I’m gonna ever be ready for that.”

“We won’t have to worry about it for a while,” she said, leaning up to kiss her wife, “While I would love to talk about our daughter’s future love life some more, I have to get ready and so do you.”

~

Before they went into the stadium, Ella leaned over to the passenger side and gave Erin a quick peck on the cheek and said, “Have a good game, I know you will. But please, play safe.”

“Of course I will! You kick ass calling the game, don’t embarrass us too much.”

“I’ll try. Little Love says good luck.”

Erin laughed and reached over to touch Ella’s belly, “My good luck charm.”

“Stop being a cheeseball and get out of the car,” Ella joked, “We have a game.”

“Okay! I will see you after,” she said stopping at the locker room door.

A few of the girls walked in around them before K got there and dragged Ella in with her, Ella began to protest, but K won, “We need a good luck charm!”

“And what about me is your good luck charm?” Ella asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The bump! It’s our good luck charm, I can feel it!”

“I am not the Buddha! Touching my belly isn’t going to make you win, only you guys can do that.”

“Humor me, please?”

Ella saw Erin in the corner giggling, “Erin, are you not going to stop this?”

“No, honey. I’m gonna let you handle this one, although you are not Buddha.”

“Please let us touch the bump! For luck! If we lose or draw then we won’t do it again! Just on our way out the door for warm ups?” K pleaded.

Ella rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat, “Fine.”

~

When it came time for the team to go out for warm ups K hunted down Ella and made her stand at the locker room door, and every single girl on the team gently touched her bump. A few giving her apologetic looks before reaching their hands out. Erin was the last person out of the locker room, she looked at her wife, who was biting her lip, “I’m sorry, babe. I’ll talk to them about boundaries after the game.”

“It’s okay, I’m not sure what made them think touching my belly was gonna be good luck, but it’s fine. Have a good game.”

“I will,” she responded.

Ella watched Erin walk down the tunnel before turning and heading up the stairs toward the booth where they called games. They handed her this ridiculous head set and let her know that she was her mic was open before making the steam live. She and the co-commentator, Matt, welcomed the people at home, and introduced the teams and the game began. Within the first five minutes of the game, Jess took the ball, passed it to K, and she scored.  Then they did it again, this time with a goal from Carli, and before she knew it it was half time. The Dash scored two more goals and Erin came up with one big save before the ref blew the whistle. Ella was thrilled, but she had to keep it professional until the stream stopped, the second the stream was done, she handed her headset over to the tech man before running down the stairs to meet the team in the locker room. The girls were overjoyed, celebrating and hugging each other. Ella stood by the door, and watched as the girls congratulated K on her hat trick. Even though she was still a part of the organization, she was no longer a member of the team, she didn’t really contribute to their win, and she missed it.

Carli noticed that something was up with her and walked over to her and asked, “What’s wrong, Els?”

Ella shook her head, “Nothing.”

“That is a load of bull.”

Ella shrugged and chewed at her lip.

“I think that maybe you miss this.”

“I do, yeah.”

Carli put an arm around her shoulders, “You know we miss you too, this win would’ve been much sweeter if you were with us, but know we brought you on the field with us.”

She half smiled, “Thanks, Carl.”

“Really, you know K made you stand at the door for a reason. The team wanted your spirit on the field with us. When you played with us you were our heart, and to not have you anymore it sucks, but we thought that maybe if we got your vibes we would win and look what happened.”

Ella let out a little laugh.

“Honestly. We won because we played like you and we took you on the field with us. Maybe not Erin, because she has enough of you in her life, but the rest of us. And maybe Little McLeod is a little bit of a good luck charm, but it’s mostly you.”

“Well thank you, Carls.”

“We miss you out there,” she said patting her back.

Ella smiled, “I miss playing, but I don’t think I’m gonna come back. I think I’ll still work here as long as Erin’s here and they let me bring the baby with me.”

“Do you think they will?”

“I hope so, I mean if not, that’s fine. She’s obviously my number one priority and I want to keep her with me at all times especially because--”

Ella was cut off by K, “Hey guys we’re going out for drinks in a few, Ella I know you can’t drink, but we would love it if you came.”

“It kind of depends on what my wife is doing, you know since we drove here together,” Ella said, partially hoping that Erin would be too tired to go out.

“Erin!” K yelled across the locker room, “Do you wanna get drinks with us?”

“Just one!” She said as she dried her hair with a towel.

“So after everybody’s all showered, we’ll go.” K said turning and heading to the shower.

Ella walked over to Erin and sat on the bench next to her, “How was the game?”

“You guys were amazing!” Ella said enthusiastically.

“How was calling the game?”

She put her head on Erin’s shoulder, “Tiring, this whole calling the game and growing another person at the same time business is a lot of work.”

Erin smiled and kissed the top of her head, “We can go home if you want. I’m just going to be a good captain, I don’t really feel like drinking,” she paused and laughed, “It would actually be a good excuse to not go: I have to take my tired, pregnant wife home.”

“Nope, we’re going. You’re not gonna use me as an excuse, plus the number of times that we can go out and not have to worry about Little Love is very limited. We only have to stay for a little bit and then we can leave because you’re a tired old lady.”

“You’re tired too!”

“Yes but I’m tired because I’ve been working non-stop for the last several months to make another little person, not because I’m old.”

“Is that right?”

“Absolutely,” Ella yawned, “We only have to stay for a half an hour, then we can go home and go to bed.”

“Okay,” she sighed.

~

The bar K ended up picking wasn’t really a bar, it was more of a restaurant that had a bar. The poor staff had to push together enough tables to accommodate all the whole team with the exception of a few, they ended up staying for an hour. Ella wanted to stay longer but she she could tell that her wife’s eyes were beginning to close so she stood and said, “I have to get this one home before she falls asleep at the table.”

The team laughed and as Ella and Erin were about to leave, K shouted, “Hey wait! I want to propose a toast to Ella for letting us bring her good vibes out on the field with us and to Little McLeod for being our good luck charm!”

All the girls cheered and Erin and Ella laughed, they said bye to everyone and left. Ella drove since Erin was sleepy and a little buzzed, and after only five minutes in the car she was out like a light. When they got back to the apartment, Ella reached over and squeezed her wife’s hand and said, “Honey, we’re home.” Erin mumbled something in response, but Ella had no idea what it could’ve possibly been. She got out of the car and walked over to the passenger side and opened the door, “Babe, I would pick you up out of the car and carry you to the apartment, but I’m sort of carrying somebody else right now, so you’re gonna have to walk.”

Erin grumbled before getting out and letting Ella lead her to the elevator, when the doors opened, they got in and Erin rested her head on her shoulder. Ella couldn’t help but admire her half asleep, tipsy wife in the reflection of the elevator doors. She knew the days where it was just the two of them against the world were numbered, but soon enough, it would be the three of them against the world. She thought about Erin with a baby-- their baby-- in her arms and melted. She melted whenever she saw Erin with kids, but babies especially. When they first flew down to Chicago to visit Tyson and his wife and meet Grey, Erin was a bit reluctant to hold her, but after some convincing, she caved and Ella could barely contain herself she was so in love with her. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was going to be like the first time she saw Erin with their daughter. She led Erin out of the elevator and unlocked the door before leading her to their room. Once Erin was safely in bed, she padded over to the second bedroom that had basically turned into storage for Erin’s art and held some baby clothes and sat on the floor for a few minutes, hands on her belly, looking at Erin’s art that she had leaned against the walls. After a small struggle to get back up, she turned to the closet and looked at the tiny outfits they had gathered for the baby. Her miniature McLeod jersey the had bought before they had told anybody in their family that they were having a baby. The set of onesies with  animals on the butts that Erin insisted on buying because she thought they were the cutest thing she’d ever seen and the Illinois onesie that her sister gave her on her birthday. She cried over that one, that was her school, her dad’s school and Liza knew how much it meant to her. She stood there and thought about how lucky she really was, she had married the love of her life and they were having a baby. She, in her mind, was quite literally living a fairytale. She walked back through the living room to see Max fast asleep on the couch, cuddled under a blanket. Back in their room, she saw Erin asleep in bed, she changed into pajamas and cuddled into her. Erin sighed in her sleep and pulled Ella closer to her. She wrapped her arms around Ella and held her, she let herself fall asleep like that, completely at peace with her life.

 


	24. Chapter 24

They spent the morning in their pajamas in bed, watching made for tv movies and throwing popcorn at the tv and letting Max eat it off the ground. The day after a game was usually what they called an ‘us day’ and they spent it doing whatever and just being there, with each other. They tried to be as free of phones as they possibly could, their family and teammates knew which was why Erin ignored her phone ringing. But it rang again, Ella turned to her and said, “Answer it, honey.”

Erin reached over her wife to the nightstand and picked up the phone, she didn’t know the number and it certainly didn’t look American or Canadian. She answered and Ella listened to Erin’s side.

“Hello?”

“When?”

“Well I appreciate the offer, but I can’t give you an answer immediately. I need to talk to my wife about it and we have a baby on the way. There’s a lot for us to consider. I’ll get back to you when we have an answer.”

“Yeah, you too, bye.”

Ella looked at her quizzically, “Who was that?”

Erin bit her lip, “Man City. They want me to play for them after the season here is over.”

A smile spread across her face and her eyes got wide,  “Man City really? That’s amazing!”

“I know, but I don’t know if I want to move across the ocean with a newborn. I mean it’s been my dream forever, but I want to do what’s best for us as a family.”

“Erin this has been something you’ve talked about happening for years and now it’s finally happening and you’re thinking of not taking it?”

“I want to take it, but I want to see our baby. Playing in England isn’t exactly good for free time. I want to be able to be her mom. Maybe they’ll put their offer off until next year when she’s a little older.”

“And what if they say no?”

“You two are my number one priorities and I want to spend as much time with you and Little Love as possible. If they say no, then screw ‘em. Babies are only babies once, and I want her to know that I’m her mom and not just some lady that shows up and holds her sometimes.”

“Oh, honey--”

“I don’t want her to grow up without me being there.”

“We’d be in England with you, it’s not like I wouldn’t go with you.”

“I know, but I’d still be gone most of the time and I want to be present in her life from day one. I know what we do doesn’t exactly make that easy, but that’s what I want.”

“I know you want to be there for her, but I don’t want you to say no to their offer and regret it later.”

“I know, but you and Little Love are the most important things in my life. Soccer might’ve been my first love, but you two are are my true loves and if playing soccer means that I couldn’t spend time with you and watch our little one grow up, then I don’t want to play soccer.”

“You know I support you no matter what, but I just want you to make what you think is the right decision.”

“I don’t know what I should do. I wish there was an easy answer where I could get the best of both worlds.”

“Maybe you should sleep on it, call them back tomorrow.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” she sighed, resting her head on Ella’s shoulder, “I think I’m gonna call my dad, he always knows what to do.”

Ella leaned over and kissed her head, “Okay, I’m gonna make dinner. Gluten free pizza?”

“Yes please!”

When Ella left the room, she closed the door behind her and dialed her dad’s cell phone.

“Hey sweetheart!” he answered.

“Hi Daddy!”

“How are you?”

“I’m good!

“Good! How’s my favorite daughter-in-law?”

“She’s good, she’s making dinner. But I need to ask you something.”

“Sure, honey, what’s up?” he asked, concerned.

“I got a phone call a while ago from the Man City women’s team and they want me to come play for them once the season is over here.”

“That’s great! You’re going aren’t you?”

“That’s the problem,” she sighed, “I don’t know if I should take it.”

“Why?”

“We’re having a baby in a few months, Dad.”

“Well that shouldn’t stop you, babies are portable.”

She laughed, “I know that, but I don’t want to move across the ocean and leave Ella by herself with the baby for days. That’s not fair to her.”

“You’re right. Is there a way for you to wait until the baby’s a little older to take their offer?”

“I don’t know. I just told them that I had a lot to think about before I could say give them an answer.”

“What does Ella think?”

“That’s the thing, she almost wants me to take it.”

“Because she’s a good wife! She knows that you’ve wanted to play for them forever and she wants you to live your dreams.”

“I know, but I’m not sure if that’s my dream anymore. It was once but now I kinda just want to hang out with Ella and play soccer but soccer isn’t my whole life anymore.”

“My baby’s a grown-up!” He laughed.

“Daddy!”

“I don’t know what to tell you, honey. You’re gonna have to figure this one out on your own, but I will tell you this: watching you and your sisters grow up was one of the greatest joys of my life and I’m so glad to have you three.”

“You’re not making this any easier!”

“I’m sorry, Erin! But this is all you, I can’t give you an answer!”

“I know.”

“I’m gonna let you go, but give Ella my love.”

“I will, love you.”

“Love you too, sweetie.”

When she hung up, she sighed and threw herself back in bed, this decision wasn’t getting any easier.

Eventually, she wandered out into the kitchen to find Ella putting cheese on the pizzas, she looked up and asked, “So?”

“I don’t know!” she sighed, leaning on the counter, “He didn’t give me an answer.”

“Did he make you feel like there’s one way that’s better?”

“No, if anything, he made it worse.”

“Okay, well, right now, what are you thinking?” Ella asked as she put the pizzas in the oven.

“I’m thinking I’m going to pass on it.”

“Why?”

“Not sure, I think I just want to play in the NWSL for now, we’re closer to family than we would be if we were in England. Maybe when she gets older, if they still want me, I’ll consider playing over there. Plus babies are only babies once and I want to be there for that, so I don’t think it’s worth it for me to take that kind of an offer right now.”

“Okay, but don’t make the phone call yet though, sleep on it.”

“I know.”

“Oh hey, friendly reminder that I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at 2.”

“I know, I talked to Randy, he said I could leave a little early whenever I need to if it has to do with the baby.”

“Randy’s the best. I think he sort of thinks of himself as, like, her grandpa or something,” Ella laughed.

“Honestly, he could be. He treats us like we’re his kids.”

“I mean the spot is open what with my dad gone, we could ask him if he wants to be like her Houston Grandpa since she already has an amazing Canadian one.”

“It’s not a bad idea. He would probably like it. I don’t think we should call him some variation of Grandpa though, don’t wanna make him feel older than he actually is.”

“What should she call him?”

“Coach?”

Ella laughed, “Maybe we’ll let her decide. But what is she going to call us?”

“I figured one of us would be mom and the other would be mama or something.”

“Should we let her choose or should we decide what we are?”

“Was there one that you really didn’t want to be?”

Ella thought for a second, “I always thought you were more the Mama type, it fits you. I’ve thought about it a lot.”

“You have?”

Ella nodded and reached across the counter, “I’ve been thinking about it since I found out we were having a baby.”

“So you’re set on mom?”

“I’m not set on it, but I always thought you fit Mama better than I did,” she paused, “Unless you wanted to be Mom.”

Erin laced their fingers together, “No way, Mom.”

Ella smiled, “What if she doesn’t agree with us and calls us something totally different?”

“It’ll be okay, just so long as she isn’t calling us like dad or something, it’s fine.”

Ella laughed, “She’s kicking, so hopefully she’s saying that she’s gonna call us what we want her to and not that she’s going to be a rebel and call us by our first names.”

“Hopefully,” Erin smiled.

~

Later that night, when Erin was brushing her teeth, Ella appeared in the door and looked at her through the mirror, “What are you thinking?”

Erin raised her eyebrows at her and spit in the sink before turning around to look at her, “I’m still thinking I’m going to tell them no, but I’m gonna see if they might be willing to hold on to their offer for a year or two.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, what do you think I should do?”

“As a professional or as your wife?”

“As my wife.”

“Well,” she sighed, “You’re gonna get both. As your wife, I want you to be around as much as possible because I love you and because I want you to be there for our baby, but as a pro, I think it would be the best thing for your career to play in England and the money’s gotta be a little better than it is here. But back to being your wife, I’m leaving this up to you, I’d go across the world if it meant being with you. You know that.”

“El, I think I’m gonna tell them no. I think it’s the best choice for our family. I mean yeah, the money might be a little better, but I don’t think that makes up for being away from you for days at a time, not right now.”

“Okay,” Ella yawned as she got into bed.  Erin crawled back into bed and next to Ella and grabbed the book she was reading while Ella replied to some emails. After a few minutes, the baby started kicking again, and without warning, she grabbed Erin’s hand, causing her to jump, “Sorry,” she said, “She’s kicking or punching or whatever, like a lot.”

“Practicing her soccer skills.”

“It kind of hurts,” she sighed, “But this is her head over her,” she said guiding Erin’s hand to the top of her belly, “She’s like sideways in there, I don’t know if you can feel it, but I swear that’s her head and then over here are her legs.”

“It hurts?” Erin asked with concerned eyes.

“Well, yeah, she’s growing so there’s eventually going to be less and less space in there to move around. There’s only so much room in there.”

“I know that, but I didn’t think it hurt.”

Ella laughed, “It’s not bad, it’s just like sore is all.”

“There’s nothing I can do?”

“I mean, not really. It’s sort of like what you sign up for when you agree to carry another human around for nine months.”

“Are you sure?”

“There’s not much you can do right now. I mean maybe tomorrow, if you’re feeling like it, you could maybe give me a foot massage.”

“Hmm, maybe.”

“You asked!”

“Your weird little Flintstone feet? You want me to touch them?” Erin asked feigning disgust.

Ella gave her a look, “It is very possible that our daughter already has my weird little Flintstone feet and my short little sausage fingers.”

Erin took her wife’s hand, “This is true, but I love your weird little sausage fingers, they might not be good for goalkeeping though,” then she leaned in closer to Ella’s belly, “If you want to be a goalkeeper like Mama then you might want to grow those little fingers of yours out a bit more, not like your mom.”

Ella rolled her eyes and looked down at her belly, “You can have whatever kind of fingers you want. We will love you no matter what you look like.”

“Well yeah, but I’m just saying that if she wants to be a keeper when she grows up, that she should consider having bigger hands, you know because your tiny hands don’t lend themselves to goalkeeping.”

“Go to sleep asshole.”

Erin leaned over and kissed her wife’s cheek, “I love you.”

“I love you too, even though you’re a dork.”


	25. Chapter 25

Ella woke up in the morning while Erin was still in the shower, she had slept awfully. She couldn’t find a comfortable position because the baby was moving all night and it kept her up. She decided that once Erin left, she was going to sleep until she had to get ready for her doctor’s appointment. 

Erin walked out in a towel drying her hair, “Good morning, sunshine!” she said cheerfully.

Ella grumbled.

“Not a good morning?”

“Tired.”

Erin dropped her towel and put on underwear and a sports bra before walking over to the bed and leaning over to kiss Ella’s forehead, “Well now you’ve got the whole bed so you can sleep the day away if you want.”

Ella smiled sleepily, “I will don’t worry.”

She put on a pair of shorts and pulled a shirt over her head, “I’ll see you at two.”

“Yup,” Ella said, grabbing Erin’s pillow and hugging it.

Ella managed to get a few hours of sleep in before she woke up, sleepily she walked to the bathroom and got in the shower. After her shower, she noticed a few new stretch marks on her hips, and she ran her fingers over them. She was a little upset when she thought about them, but she thought of what Erin had told her the first time she noticed her first few little stretch marks and she felt better. She dried her hair and put some makeup on before getting dressed. She left the apartment and got in the car and as she drove to the doctor’s office, she felt nervous as always for the doctor. She knew that the baby was fine, she knew that she was fine, but that didn’t stop her imagination from running wild. She was worried that there was something wrong with her, what if the baby wasn’t growing like she was supposed to? What if her heart wasn’t working the way it was supposed to? What if there was something wrong with her and it was her fault? What if she wasn’t providing a good enough place for her daughter to grow? By the time she pulled into the office parking lot, she had herself all worked up. Erin was sitting in her car waiting for Ella to show up, and when she saw her wife crying in her car, she jumped into action and ran to Ella’s car.

She threw open the driver side door and knelt in front of her, “El, what’s wrong?”

“Everything!” she sobbed as Erin wrapped her arms around her.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a bad mom. I’m not giving her a good enough place for her to grow there’s something wrong and it’s my fault!” 

Erin rubbed her back, “Love, you’re not a bad mom. You take the absolute best care of her that you can. And she’s growing perfectly. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“I know! But I can’t help myself,” she wept. 

She rubbed her back, “It’s going to be okay, look where we are, this is the best place to worry about something like this because they can tell you there’s nothing wrong right away,” she said gesturing to the front of the doctor’s office. 

Ella pulled away from her, nodded and wiped her tears.

“Are you ready or do you need a minute?”

She wiped tears from her face and let out a weak laugh, “I’m going to need a minute.”

“Okay,” Erin said, rocking back on her heels.

She sighed once again, looking at herself in the mirror and wiping her cheeks, “It’s a good thing I put on waterproof makeup today,” she laughed.

“I guess so!” 

Ella got out of the car and took Erin’s hand, “I’m scared.”

“Everything is going to be fine,” Erin told her as they walked into the office.

Ella checked in, and sat in an uncomfortable waiting room chair for what was sure to be another agonizing wait. There was a lady sitting across from them with a sleeping newborn and the second she laid eyes on him, she melted. The lady saw Ella staring at her baby, “How far along are you?”

“24 weeks, how old is he?” 

“He’s 2 weeks old today and he’s the best baby ever,” she said running a finger across the baby’s cheek.

They talked for a few minutes as Ella stared at the baby. Erin could see the nerves disappearing from her wife as she watched the lady’s sleeping baby. 

They called Ella’s name and she took a deep breath before standing up and following the nurse back where they weighed her and set her up in a room to wait for the doctor.

“Are you feeling better?” Erin asked from her chair in the corner of the room.

“I mean a little bit, but I’m still freaking out a little. Like, I know rationally that everything’s probably fine, but my pregnant brain is telling me I need to freak out.”

“At least you’re freaking out in a place that can make you feel better. There’s not a lot I can do to make you less nervous at home.”

“I guess you’re right--” she didn’t get to finish her thought because she heard one of those doctor knocks that meant they were coming in, ready or not.

“How are we today?” the doctor asked. 

Erin looked to Ella who said, “I’m feeling good, but I’m afraid there might be something wrong with the baby.”

“Okay, what are you feeling?”

“I don’t know. There’s not anything in particular, just in the car when I was driving over here, I sort of got into my own head about it, all the ‘what ifs’, you know?”

“It happens all the time. Now as far as making you feel less nervous about the baby, we can have a quick listen to the heartbeat and make sure that sounds alright and we’re gonna measure your belly and make sure she’s growing on the right schedule.”

Ella nodded.

The doctor turned to Erin, “How are you doing, Erin?”

“What do you mean?”

“How are you?”

Erin raised an eyebrow, “I’m good, I guess.”

“I like to check up on both parents, you know, just to make sure everybody is doing well.”

“Thanks.”

The doctor pulled out the heart monitor and asked Ella, “Is there any reason for you to be nervous, like the baby’s been moving less or are you just worried?”

“Just nervous, I guess.”

“That’s totally normal!” 

“Are you sure?”

“I’m absolutely sure, but let’s have a listen just so we’re all sure,” she said while she searched for a heartbeat, Ella held her breath and gripped tighter onto Erin’s hand. 

It took a few seconds of the doctor being unable to find the baby’s heartbeat before Ella began to freak out, “What’s wrong? Why can’t we hear her heartbeat?”

Erin held tighter onto Ella’s hand while the doctor kept searching, “She’s probably in a weird position. No need to worry give me a few more sec-”  After what felt like forever, they finally heard the  _ thump thump thump  _ of their daughter’s tiny heart. Ella didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she exhaled, she felt Erin loosen her grip on her hand, “It sounds good and strong, nothing to be worried about there.”

Ella sighed in relief, “Thank god.”

Erin kissed her hand, “Sounds good, right?”

The doctor nodded as she took the monitor off of Ella’s belly, “Her heart rate is right where it needs to be. I’m just gonna measure your belly and then I have a few questions and then I’ll send you two on your way,” she nodded as the doctor measured her belly, “You’re right on target for 24 weeks, there’s nothing to worry about, everything is going perfectly.” 

Ella sighed in relief once again and thanked the doctor once again for putting up with her. 

“So she’s been having these pains, like she says they’re just sore, but obviously I worry because there’s nothing I can do to fix them. I just want to know that it’s normal.”

“Yeah so those are ligament pains, it’s completely normal, the best way I can describe them is that they’re like growing pains, and  there’s not really much you can do,” Erin nodded, “I have a few questions for you two, the first of which is: have you thought about where she’s going to be born?”

Ella looked at Erin, who looked to her as to say go on, “Probably at the hospital here unless she has other plans.”

“Have you gone to a birthing class?” They shook their heads, “It’s not required, but I strongly recommend them to my patients. Especially for first timers, I think they’re super helpful.”

“We should go to those now? We still have sixteen weeks to go,” Erin asked, confused.

“Well, it’s up to you about when and if you go, but I would do it soon, they usually last a couple weeks and they fill up.”

“Okay,” Ella nodded.

“Do you have any more questions for me?” They shook their heads no, “I will see you in a few weeks. then.”

They followed the doctor out of the room and talked to the woman at the front desk to make an appointment for their next visit.

Erin walked Ella to her car and asked, “Are you feeling better?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I really had no reason to freak out.”

“It’s okay to be nervous, it’s not like either of us know anything about being pregnant.”

“I know, but I still shouldn’t have freaked out like that, it was a lot.”

“I’m sure she’s had people worse than us.” 

“Probably.”

“I’ll see you at home, I’m cooking tonight,” Erin said leaning in to kiss her goodbye.

Ella nodded, said, “Bye,” and started her car as Erin walked away.

~

“I think we should talk about names,” Ella said from her spot at the kitchen table.

Erin looked up from the peppers she was cutting, “Okay, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that we need to make a list because we only have 4 months until she’s supposed to be here and I know how we are with decision making and I don’t want her to show up and us not have a name for her because then she’ll go the first few days of her life as Baby McLeod and I don’t want that.”

“Alright,” she said taking reaching for a stack of sticky notes and a pen and handing them to Ella, “So we had that sticky note on the fridge that said Mia on it, but it must’ve fallen off. Do you still like Mia?”

“Yeah,” she said as she wrote the name down, “We talked about Ivy, I really like that one.”

“Yes, I love Ivy. Write that one down for sure.”

“She’s kicking, I think she likes Ivy too. What else?”

“I really like the double M thing, maybe Maya McLeod.” 

“Maya’s not bad,” she said as she wrote it out under the other names, “What do you think of Laney? I mean we could name her Delaney but call her Laney.” 

“I’m not sure, it’s not bad. I don’t love it, do you love it?”

“Not love, but like a lot.” 

“Well write it down.”

“What about Evie?”

“I like Evie but it’s sort of that whole EM thing. Like we’re both EM and if the baby is also EM and we have another kid are we going to feel like we need to give them the same initials?”

Ella bit her lip, “We aren’t obligated to do anything.”

“I know, but I worry that if we have another one we’re gonna feel obligated to give them the same initials as the rest of us.”

“We were both EM before we met. We just got lucky.”

“I know.”

“Do you like Evie? We could give her like a more grown up full name like Evangeline,” Ella said trying to get Erin to focus on what they were talking about.

“I like Evangeline, I think.”

“So write it down?”

Erin nodded as she added the peppers to the pan that she had sitting on the stove, “I was on the phone with my mom earlier, and she suggested that we name her after my great aunt Phyllis.” 

Ella laughed, “Was she serious?”

“Like a heart attack. Apparently she wanted to name one of us after her, but dad said no, thank god.”

“What did you tell her?”

“My great aunt Phyllis died when I was three, so I don’t know much about her other than that my mom liked her quite a lot. But I told her I would talk to you about it but not to get her hopes up.”

“If she asks tell her that maybe the next kid will be called Phyllis, I don’t want to crush her and tell her that I would never name a kid Phyllis and don’t make it sound like I said no straight out, make it sound like we talked about it and decided it wouldn’t fit her.”

“I feel because we ruled it out so quickly but Phyllis is just not a good name. I think we’re her last hope, since Megan didn’t name her kids after Phyllis and we all know Cara wouldn’t even consider in a million years.”

“Poor Cheryl, she tried so hard,” Ella laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, poor Cheryl, she has three kids that love her but not enough to name one of their kids after her favorite aunt Phyllis that none of us ever remember meeting,” Erin said sarcastically.

Ella laughed again, “Okay, but seriously, is there like another family name that you want to talk about? Like better than Phyllis.”

“The only one that I can think of is my auntie Laura, but I don’t think I like it for the baby. Maybe as a middle name if we have a few more kids then Laura would maybe be in the running.”

“A few more?” Ella asked raising an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah, I mean we talked about three.”

“I don’t know, after I push this one out of my body, give me like two years and then maybe we can talk about having another one. Growing another person takes a lot out of you.”

“I mean maybe after the next world cup, I could try.”

“You want to get pregnant?”

“I don’t know, maybe. It’s like almost 3 years away.”

“Are you sure?”

Erin nodded, “I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s because I’m seeing you pregnant, but like, I can hear my own clock ticking. I’m pretty sure it’s something I want to do.”

“You know I would love to have a little you running around, so I don’t mind the idea. But I want to make sure that it’s what you want for sure before we go through and do it, especially because you put off that offer from Man City for a year or two.”

“I mean we have a few years before we have to decide, but I think it’s something I want to do at least once.”

“So are we thinking three kids?” 

“Three, maybe four.”

“Honey, four is a lot of kids.”

“You’re one of four and you turned out alright,” she said stirring the food in the pan.

“And my parents couldn’t afford to feed us! I don’t want our kids wondering where their next meal is coming from, it’s not fair to them. I don’t want them to have to worry like we did, I want our kids to be kids for a long as they can.”

Erin could tell that her wife was getting upset so she dropped it and walked over and wrapped her arms around her, “It’s okay, we’re able to afford four if we want four. I mean we should probably decide if we can handle four little kids running around.”

“I think we should just see if we can handle the one that’s going to be running around soon and then we can decide,” Ella said into Erin’s shoulder, “Also your food is burning.”

“Shit!” Erin said running over to the stove and taking the pan off the heat, “It’s barely burnt! How did you smell that?”

“Pregnant lady super smell,” she shrugged, “It’s one of the many, many cool things about being pregnant.”

“Is it really?” Erin asked as she put the food on plates.

“No, almost everything smells bad and I thought I had a lot of hair before but apparently what I had was not enough and my boobs, I mean you know what happened to them.”

Erin set a plate in front of Ella and sat down across from her, “I’m not complaining about them. They’re a nice perk.”

“Yeah for you! They get in my way. But the actual cool thing about being pregnant is like getting to feel her grow and knowing that she’s ours and at the end of all this we’re gonna have a tiny person of our own.”

“What do you think she’s gonna look like?”

“I don’t know, the guy we chose looked a lot like you. I mean I would like for her to look like you because you’re the most gorgeous person I’ve ever laid my eyes on.”

Erin smiled, “Maybe one day we can have one that looks like me, but I want her to look like you. Maybe not all that hair that you have, because our drains are gonna get clogged and that’s nasty, but I want her to have your face.”

“Either way, she’s gonna be cute because we’re cute,” Ella said taking a bite of her food.

“And a Man City fan.”

“Don’t push your luck Erin, she’s not even born yet and you’re trying to get her to like a team that is clearly not as good as Man U.”

“We’ll have to see about that tomorrow, won’t we?” Erin asked smugly.

“We’ll see.”


	26. Chapter 26

 

The next morning, Ella was awoken by her wife playing with her hair. “Are you ready for the game today?” she asked.

Ella was still half asleep and not totally aware of what was going on so she said, “I can’t play right now, I can’t play for a while, I’m pregnant.”

Erin laughed and kissed her forehead, “I know silly, I’m talking about the Manchester game.” 

Ella yawned, “No.” 

“Yes, you lost a bet, time to pay up!” Ella rolled over and started kissing Erin’s neck in hopes of getting her to agree to not making her wear a Man City jersey, “We can have sex if you want, but that’s not gonna make me forget that you have a bet to pay up on.” 

Ella rolled away from her and sighed, “I was hoping that would get me out of it.”

“Sorry, babe, not today,” Erin said as she got out of bed.

“It always works!” 

“I know, but not today. But I’ll be nice and let you choose which jersey you want to wear.”

“Erin McLeod, the kindest woman on earth.”

“I could just pick one out for you,” Erin said, returning from her closet with three Man City jerseys.

“Will any of them even fit over my belly?” 

“Oh, don’t use the belly as an excuse, they’re stretchy, they’ll fit.”

Ella sighed, “Fine. Just give me one, I don’t care,” as Erin handed her a jersey, Ella said, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Believe it, wifey.”

“I don’t want to, I’m not getting out of bed,” Ella said crossing her arms. 

“C’mon, babe,” Erin said, “I’ll make you breakfast.”

“You should make me breakfast because I’m carrying your child, not to get me out of bed so I can put on an ugly jersey.”

“Don’t be a sore loser, El! Put on the jersey!” Erin said, turning and walking to the kitchen.

Ella grumbled for a while more, but she did eventually put on the jersey and left the room to find Erin in the kitchen making blue pancakes. 

“Erin Katrina!” 

“Ella Copple!” Erin responded, not looking up from her work. 

“What are you doing?”

“I’m making breakfast.”

“Why are the pancakes blue?” Ella asked sternly narrowing her eyes at her wife.

“Because our team is blue, I thought it was a great idea.”

“Not our team,  _ your  _ team. I’m only even wearing this because I lost that bet.”

“Don’t think that I’m letting you get off that easy.”

“What else could you possibly do?” Ella asked, sarcastically.

“I want pictures, you know for posterity.”

Ella rolled her eyes, “I cannot believe this.”

Erin finally looked up from her pan, “Oh, but Els, blue is so your color!”

“Listen, I know, I look really good in everything.”

“Don’t get cocky.”

Ella smirked at her, deciding to try one last ditch effort to get out of having to wear the Man City jersey, “I look better naked, finish cooking,” Ella said, turning back to the bedroom.

“Good try, but that’s not gonna get you out of this!” 

“You’re the worst!”

“It’s okay, I’ll manage being the worst for a couple of hours. Come eat before it gets cold.”

Ella rolled her eyes.

Erin sat across from her at the table and pulled out her phone, “How do you feel about the Man City game?” 

She frowned at her.

“You’re excited, right?”

Ella stared at her with a straight face, and said completely deadpan, “Yeah, go team.”

Erin smiled slyly at her, “Thank you.”

“Our daughter better not be for Man City.”

“She’s gonna be, I already know it,” Erin smiled, looking at Ella across her pancakes.

“Don’t even say such horrible things!” 

“If she is you’re still gonna love her because she’s ours.” 

“Of course,” Ella smiled, resting a hand on her belly, “I love her more than I love myself.” 

“She’s already pretty cool kid,” Erin half smiled.

“I know, we hang out all the time. We’re pretty close. ”

Erin smiled, “Stop being cute and eat your pancakes.”

Ella stuck her tongue out at her, “I’m the cutest, I know.”

“Are you going to eat or should I take the pancakes for myself?”

“I’m eating!” Ella said, cutting a piece out of her blue pancakes, “Delicious!” she said through a mouthful of pancakes. Max ran over to the table and looking for crumbs, “Maxwell, can you believe your mother is making me wear this ridiculous outfit?”

Max cocked his head at her.

“I know, she’s the worst.”

Erin looked down at Maxwell and said, “Say don’t be a sore loser, Mom. Tell her that she lost a bet and now it’s time to pay up.”

Max barked and Ella frowned at him, “I can’t believe that you’re siding with her on this!”

Erin smirked at her, “What can I say?” she said, as she picked him up and let him lick her face, “He’s a mama’s boy.”

Ella rolled her eyes once more, and took her dishes to the sink. As she stood washing the dishes, she watched Erin smile, almost evilly at her phone, “Erin what are you doing?”

“I’m not posting that video I got of you snoring on twitter.” 

“If you know what’s best for you, you wouldn’t.”

“But I already did,” she said showing her phone to her.

_ @erinmcleod18: And she told me she doesn’t snore _

“Oh you’re in for it now, McLeod” Ella scowled. 

“I think somehow I’ll manage,” Erin said, placing a quick kiss on her wife’s cheek while putting her dish and coffee cup in the soapy water, “I love you.”

“I love you too, but you’re gonna be on the couch tonight.”

“Just one night?” Erin asked as she sat on the couch and turned on the tv.

“We’re gonna have to see about that,” Ella answered, sitting on the opposite side of the couch, “I’ll consider letting you come back if, and only if, you let me post ugly pictures of you. Especially since you already did have two ugly videos of me on the day.”

“I guess, since I’ve been such an awful wife today.”

Ella stretched out on the couch, “Or you could rub my feet and I’ll only post one ugly picture of you.” 

Erin half smiled, “I guess, but the second this game starts, I’m done.” 

“That’s fine, it doesn’t start for a half an hour. Get to rubbin’ wifey!”

They sat and watched the pre-game, Erin rubbing Ella’s feet, occasionally making comments about how weird they were and Ella would stick them in her face and tell her to stop being mean. The game started and Erin shouted at the tv for the better part of ninety minutes. Man City lost, Erin blamed it on the defense and pouted on the couch for another half an hour. Ella took the loss as an opportunity to take the horrid jersey off and wander around the apartment in just her bra and underwear and see what Erin did. It only took about two minutes before she felt her wife’s eyes following her as she moved about the apartment picking up Erin’s stray socks and Max’s dog toys, “What’s up?”

“Nothing, you’re just not wearing clothes.”

“I’m wearing underwear,” Ella said, as she ran her fingers through her hair.

“And that’s it,” Erin said, raising her eyebrows.

“Is that not enough?” Ella asked innocently, “Because I can go put on more clothes.”

Erin shook her head and grabbed Ella’s hand, “Not necessary, less is best,” she said as she pulled Ella back to the couch.

“Oh, Mrs. McLeod, what are you doing?” Ella laughed.

“Well, Mrs. McLeod,” Erin whispered, kissing her neck, “I’m doing this,” she said, biting at her collarbone and unhooking her bra.

Ella sighed, “I like that.”

“Good, there’s more where that came from,” Erin whispered, kissing her way up from Ella’s neck to her lips. 

“I’m sorry they lost.”

“I’m over it.”


	27. Chapter 27

Ella found Erin at the practice field and said, “Hey, I’m going home, I have a bit of a stomach ache. Can you find a ride?”

Erin looked at her with soft eyes, “Do you want me to go with you?”

Ella shook her head, “No, I’ll be fine. I think I just need to sleep it off. Practice hard, okay?”

Erin nodded as she watched Ella walk away.

Ella bit her lip as she walked toward her car, she lied to Erin about why she was going home. She promised Erin a date a few weeks before, and she was finally going to take her out. She had big plans, they had reservations at a restaurant that everyone was talking about and they were going to make the half hour drive out to the beach because it had finally gotten warm enough to go at night. Erin didn’t know anything that was going on, Ella wanted to surprise her since she didn’t feel as though she got to enough. Erin was always surprising her.

She walked in and said hello to Max before going into their closet to pick clothes out. Normally, she didn’t dress Erin, she always thought dressing one’s spouse was controlling, but since she didn’t want her to know what they were doing so, she set out a pair of dark jeans and a blazer. Ella went through their dresses looking for one that was just stretchy enough that she could fit into. After trying on 3 dresses and having none of them zip at all, she finally found a blue one that just barely started to zip.  She had an hour or so before Erin would be home and they had to start getting ready, so she laid in bed tracing little circles on her belly. Max hopped up on the bed and crawled on her chest.

“Hey, bud,” she said, petting his head, “You’re gonna have a little sister in a few months, what do you think of that?”

Max licked her face.

“We’re excited too, it’s like a whole new adventure. It’s kinda scary, though.”

She knew that Max didn’t really have an idea about what she was saying, but it felt good to get it her chest.

“We’re gonna be responsible for a whole other tiny person. And I mean obviously, we’re capable of keeping other things alive, you’re still here. It’s just so scary because she’s gonna be so much more delicate than you ever were.” 

Max cocked his head at her.

“You’re still our first baby, don’t worry buddy.”

Ella heard Erin’s keys in the door, “Hey, babe, where are you?”

“I’m in bed,” she yelled.

Erin appeared in the door, “You just never wear clothes, do you?”

Ella looked at her, indignant, “I will have you know that I am currently wearing a bra and underwear.” 

“I’m not complaining,” Erin said, laying down next to her, “I’m just making an observation. Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah, you need to shower and get ready, we’re going out.”

“We’re what?”

“Remember when I said I was going to take you out a few weeks ago?”

“Oh so we’re going on a date?”

“You bet your sweet little ass we are. I lied about being sick, I’m fine.”

“You swear?”

“I’m totally fine, now please go shower! I’m going to do my hair and makeup and then, I’m gonna need you to help me get this dress on, it’s a little tight.”

Erin nodded, kissing her, “Is that what you want me to wear?” she asked, gesturing toward the outfit Ella had laid on the dresser. 

“Yeah, we’re going to a nice-ish place.”

“Can I ask where we’re going?”

“Nope, go shower so we aren’t late.”

Erin sighed, “I don’t like surprises, Masar.”

“Honey, I’m not Masar anymore, but good try. Go shower.”

As Erin showered, Ella took her hair out of its bun and began to curl it. After her hair was curled, she did her makeup and sat on the bed waiting for her wife to be done. 

Erin came out and saw the dress sitting next to Ella on the bed, “Isn’t that my dress?”

“Listen, I tried on like 3 other dresses and none of them fit. Plus what’s your’s is mine,” Ella said as she slipped it on.

“Are you sure this fits?”

“I zipped it part way earlier,” Ella said, chewing on her lip.

“Okay, can you suck in?”

“Suck in? Erin, I’m pregnant, I can’t suck it in!”

Erin thought for a second, “New plan stick your boobs out.”

“What?”

“Just do it, El,” Ella finally listened and Erin managed to get the zipper up, “Can you breathe?” 

“Barely, but yes.” 

“Okay, let me see the whole outfit,” Ella took a step away from her wife before turning around. Erin gasped, she was wearing a cobalt blue knee length dress that hugged her curves and her belly. Her dark hair was spilling over her shoulder and her skin, already glowing from being pregnant, was glowing even more, “Holy shit, Ella.”

“What?” 

“You look beautiful.”

“Really?” Ella asked, blushing.

“You always do,” Erin said, stepping forward and kissing her.

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” Ella said, pulling Erin in closer to her by her blazer, “And as much as I want to stand here and look at you, we’ve gotta go soon, grab some clothes that are comfortable and warmish we’re going somewhere after.”

Erin raised an eyebrow at her, “Where?”

“I can’t give away all my secrets,” Ella smirked as she grabbed Erin’s hand and led her out of the apartment.

“You’re gonna kill me,” Erin sighed.

“You’re gonna love it,” Ella said as they walked down the stairs that led to the parking deck. Ella snuck a blanket into the trunk before Erin got home and she planned on keeping Erin in the dark about going to the beach as long as she could. If she timed it right, they would make it there to see the sunset. 

After fifteen minutes in the car, Erin asked, “Els, where are you taking me?”

“Dinner,” Ella said, staring straight at the road.

“Ella!” 

“No, you’ll figure it out when we get there,” Ella said, reaching her hand over for Erin’s thigh.

“I can’t believe you!”

“You pull this with me all the time! It’s my turn now!” Ella laughed as she turned into a parking deck. She found a spot, parked, and took Erin’s hand as they walked down the street toward the restaurant. 

When they got closer to the restaurant, Erin gasped, “Ella!”

“Yes?” Ella asked, nonchalantly. Ella had chosen a high end burger place that everyone had been talking about, but was usually impossible to get a table at.

“How did you get us in?”

“I’m magical.”

“I already knew that, but thank you.”

“Anything for that face.”

They sat at their tiny table in the crowded restaurant, as Ella laughed at Erin as her eyes grew wide as she looked at the menu and again when their food came to the table. When the check came, Erin reached for it and Ella hit her hand away, “This is my date, let me pay.”

Erin sighed, “We share the money, though.”

“Okay, so let me pay, the money comes from the same place. Plus, I’m taking you out, this is what a date is, honey.”

Erin reluctantly agreed and Ella paid. 

As they were walking back to the car, Erin watched as Ella sped up a little bit and turned around and smiled the widest smile. She was taken by how beautiful her wife was in that blue dress. She took a picture and caught up to her. 

“Ella look at this,” Erin said, showing Ella her phone.

“That’s just me,” Ella said, taking Erin’s hand.

“I know, but you look gorgeous. I’m gonna post it.”

_ @erinmcleod1: This cat- @emasar3 I mean come on _

“Where are we going?”

“I’m not telling you,” Ella said, smirking as she opened the back door of the car and pulling out a pair of leggings, “I’m just telling you that you should probably change while I drive. You don’t want to be wearing a nice blazer where we’re going.”

Erin raised her eyebrows at her.

“We’re not going anywhere bad,” Ella said as she sat in the front seat and wiggled into the leggings, leaving the dress on, “Also, you’re going to have to help me get this dress off because there’s no way in hell I’m getting this thing off on my own.”

Erin laughed, “Okay, but I expect something in return.”

Ella’s eyes widened, “Is an amazing date not enough for you?”

“I mean, I can return the favor.”

“Not where we’re going, we’re not going to be giving favors there,” Ella said as she got on the freeway. 

Erin played with with her wife’s hair while she drove, “I love you a lot, you know.”

“I know, I love you a lot too.” 

After that they drove most of the way in comfortable silence, until Ella took the exit that Erin knew was for the beach, “Ella.”

“Erin.”

“The beach?”

“Yeah, it’s warm enough and we’re just here to watch the sunset.”

Erin leaned over and kissed her cheek, “Thank you.”

“You can kiss me when I’m not driving!” Ella said as she turned onto a side road that led to a beach access. 

Erin sighed, “Okay.”

“Two minutes, okay?”

Erin nodded.

“But first you have to help me get out of this dress, because I cannot stand to be in this thing for much longer.” Ella said as she parked. She opened the door so she could turn so Erin could unzip the dress. She wiggled out of it and pulled a hoodie over her head. Erin got out of the car and walked around to Ella’s side and leaned her up against the side and kissed her. 

“Today was amazing,” she said between kisses, “Thank you.”

“It’s not over yet,” Ella said, taking Erin’s hand and pulling her toward the beach. 

They laid out their blanket and sat down. The beach was one of their places, Ella had brought Erin to a tiny beach on the edge of Chicago before they started dating. It was when Ella realizes that her weird feelings for Erin were actual romantic feelings. She didn’t act on them until after Carm had left for Boston a few weeks later.

“You know, that first time you took me to that weird beach in Chicago was when I realized I had fallen for you,” Erin said as she leaned her head on her wife’s shoulder. 

Ella smiled and leaned over to kiss the top of her head, “I just realized that I liked you a lot and I wasn’t sure what to do. And look at us now, we’re married.”

“And we’re having a kid!” Erin laughed.

“And we’re having a kid,” Ella repeated, “How did that happen?”

“Well,when a mommy and a mommy love each other very much,” she paused.

“Erin I know how we did it,” Ella said giving her a playful shove, “It just doesn’t feel real, like, in a few months we’re gonna have a little person sitting here with us.”

“I know,” Erin said kissing her cheek.

Ella moved to lay down on the blanket with her head in Erin’s lap, “Put your hand right here,” Ella said pointing at a spot on her belly, “She’s saying, ‘Moms I’m right here stop talking about me’”

Erin laughed as she felt the baby’s little kicks against her hand, “She’s gonna have to deal with it.”

Ella sighed happily as she watched Erin’s eyes each time she felt the baby kick, “I’m so lucky.”

“You’re lucky? I’ve got the most beautiful wife in whole wide world.”

“I don’t know about that, I’ve got a pretty hot wife,” Ella said, looking up at Erin’s eyes.

Erin leaned down to kiss her, “You’re drop dead gorgeous. Even in the morning when you wake up and your hair is all over and you have morning breath and when you had bad morning sickness, you were still beautiful.”

“We’re disgusting, Little Love is gonna hate us,” Ella laughed.

“I can’t wait until she’s old enough to roll her eyes for kissing each other in public or in when her friends are over to play.”

Ella smiled as she sat up and kissed Erin, “Look at the sky.”

The sun had finally begun to set, the sky was fiery red and bright orange. Ella loved sunsets, she could stare at the sky from beginning to end without saying a word. Erin liked sunsets well enough but she loved watching Ella watch sunsets. Ella’s face would soften and her eyes would change color from hazel to green in the fading light. 

“Stop staring at me,” Ella said, not taking her eyes away from the sky.

“No, I’m enjoying the sunset.”

Ella rolled her eyes and went back to watching the sunset.

Erin let her head rest on Ella’s shoulder and sighed happily, taking Ella’s hand, “Thank you for today.” 

The sun was close to dipping below the horizon when Ella said, “You’re welcome, but we can’t go on any more fancy dates until I have the baby because I don’t want to spend money on nice clothes that I’ll only wear like once.” 

Erin kissed her hand, “That’s okay.”

“We can go on movie dates all we want though, I don’t have to look great for those.”

“You look great all the time,” Erin said leaning in to kiss Ella. 

Ella kissed her back, hard. 

She took it as a sign and eased Ella down so that she was hovering over her and kissed her again. 

Ella looked up at her, “I know that look, we’re not having sex on the beach, it’s cold, and last time we almost got caught.” 

Erin sighed, “Fine,” she said, standing up, “Let’s go.”

Erin offered her a hand, “We’re also not having sex in the car. We’re adults and I’m pregnant. Also we have a bed.” 

“But our bed is like thirty minutes away,” Erin whined. 

Ella wrapped her arms around Erin’s neck, “I’ll drive fast.” 

“Promise?” 

Ella kissed her neck, causing Erin to moan, “As quickly as I can,” she whispered darkly.

Erin picked up the blanket, grabbed Ella’s hand and all but dragged her toward the car, “Please drive fast.”

On the freeway, Erin started running her hand up and down Ella’s inner thigh, “Honey, as much as I want to pull this car over so you can fuck me, I can’t.”

“More reason to drive faster,” Erin smirked.

“If I drove any faster, I would get arrested for reckless driving!”

“Pull over then.”

“No,” Ella said as she hit the gas a little more forcefully, “I can hold off until we get home. I know you can’t, but patience is a virtue.”

Erin groaned.

“Look,” Ella said offering her hand to her, “You can hold my hand until we get back. Think about self control or something, I don’t know.”

“Ella, you’re teasing me!”

“I might be, but it’s nothing worse than anything you’ve done to me. Plus, we’re like maybe 10 minutes away.”

Erin kissed Ella’s fingers, “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that we need to get home soon because the longer we sit in this car, the more I just give up and pull over. Also, I sorta have to pee.” 

Erin giggled, “So we’re not adults anymore?”

“I’m gonna power through, don’t worry.”

“You’re gonna kill me, Ella McLeod.” 

“Look,” Ella said, pointing, “There’s our building.”

“Thank god!”

Ella laughed as she pulled into the parking garage. Erin unbuckled before Ella parked, “Someone’s excited.”

“Park the car, El, let’s go.”

Ella laughed once more before getting out of the car. Erin took her hand and all but dragged her to the stairs. As Erin fumbled with the keys, Ella kissed her cheek, “I don’t think we’ve done something like this since we got married.”

Erin threw the door open and picked Ella up bridal style, “Nothing like this,” she said as she kissed her, “Not for a while.”

“Close the door,” Ella said, kissing her neck.

Erin kicked the door shut and carried her to the bedroom.


	28. Chapter 28

Harper came running in from the hallway and straight into Erin wrapping his arms around her legs, “Hi, Ms. Erin!”

She mussed his hair, “Hey buddy! Where’s your mom?”

“She’s coming! She’s just slow.”

Haley walked in behind a few seconds later, “You don’t have to watch him, he can come with me.” 

Erin shook her head, “ No way! We love hanging out with Harper! He’s a cool dude. Plus you should get some time for yourself every once in awhile.”

“It’s just a fundraiser, are you sure?”

“Absolutely! You can repay us after we have the baby and want to go on a date without her.”

“It’s going to be a while, I think it took me almost six months before I was okay with leaving Harper alone with anybody for more than an hour. But that’s okay, because we’re good pals, right Harps?” she asked, holding her hand up for a high five.

“Yeah!” he shouted, high fiving her.

“Where’s Ella?” Haley asked.

“She took Max out, but that was like fifteen minutes ago. I’m not sure what she’s doing.” Just then they heard Max barking at the door, “That has to be her, but she usually doesn’t just let him stand at the door like that,” she said, walking over and opening the door to find just Max standing there. Her heart dropped, Ella was nowhere to be found, “Maxwell, where’s your other mother?” 

He cocked his head at her.

“Ella!” she called.

“Honey,” she heard her wife say.

Erin walked quickly over to the stairs and found Ella sitting at the bottom of the stairs, “El, are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I just slipped. I think I might’ve sprained my wrist, though.”

“You slipped?” she asked as she sat next to her wife.

“Yeah, I think I missed a step. I caught myself and now my wrist hurts.”

“How long have you been sitting here?”

“Not long, Max took thirty five years to pee.”

Erin stood up and reached her hand out to Ella, “We’re going to the hospital.”

“No, Erin we’re supposed to be watching Harper.”

“I think Haley'll understand. Plus, there’s like ten other girls in this building that are more than qualified to watch him. I want to make sure that you’re okay.”

“Honey, I’m fine, I swear,” she said, gripping onto her left wrist.

“I don’t care that you think you’re fine I want to make sure that you’re okay.”

“We don’t have to go to the hospital because I know it’s sprained, and before you say it, the baby is fine she’s kicking away at my ribs.”

“I just want to know for sure that everything is fine.”

Ella rolled her eyes, “Fine! I will go to the hospital, but you’re going to have to make it up to me for making me sit in the ER for probably hours and subjecting me to useless, expensive tests just so they can tell us what I just told you.”

“That works for me!”

“I’m really fine though! I don’t want to have to spend all this money on this.”

“Good thing we have insurance!” Erin said holding open the door. 

“Ms. Ella!” Harper cheered running toward her.

Erin stood between her wife and Harper, “Not hugs right now Harps, Ms. Ella fell down and we have to go get her checked out.”

She looked up to Haley and said, “She fell missed a step and fell, she thinks she sprained her wrist, and I just want to make sure she’s okay. Steph would probably love to hang out with him.”

“I’ll just bring him with me,” she said turning to Ella, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! The baby’s fine! I just tripped! Erin’s freaking out and she doesn’t need to, but I’m giving her this one. Harper, I’m sorry we can’t play today. I really wish we could, but maybe we can play tomorrow or the day after? We can get ice cream or something.”

Harper nodded sadly, “I really wanted to play with you and Ms. Erin, today.” 

Erin felt bad, she knelt in front of him and said, “The next time we play together, I’ll make it up to you, maybe some candy?”

“Yeah!” He shouted.

“Haley, I’m really sorry about this,” Ella said.

“It’s okay, I understand where Erin’s coming from, plus fundraisers are super fun! Right Harps?”

“I guess,” he said.

Erin grabbed her sketchbook and a book for Ella before grabbing her keys and leading her to the door, “Bye, Max! We’ll be back in a little bit.”

She made Ella sit in the passenger seat before getting in on the driver side, “Honey, I’m really fine! This is so unnecessary.”

“Babe, I believe that you’re fine, but I want know for sure that you’re fine and I want to know for sure that the baby’s fine.” 

“I fell on the stairs and I caught myself before I landed, my belly never hit anything!” Ella said, exasperated.

“I just want to be safe.”

Ella sighed, “Okay.”

“Thank you,” Erin said as Ella sat in silence and held her wrist, Erin took one hand off the steering wheel and set it on her wife’s thigh, “I love you.”

“You better after all the things I do for you. Like go to the ER and carry a child and retire and follow you around.”

Erin laughed, “It’s because I have a nice butt that you follow me around.”

“That’s very possible. Also I love you.”

Erin smiled as she pulled into a parking spot in the hospital lot.

When they walked into the ER, Ella told the nurse that what happened and that her wife wanted to make sure that everything was okay. The nurse smiled warmly at her and handed her a clipboard filled with paperwork for her to fill out while they waited. She handed it to Erin and said, “Here you go, wifey. Fill ‘em out!”

They waited for more than an hour, Ella fidgeting nervously, while Erin sketched out an elephant, “Erin,” Ella said.

“Yes, babe?”

“I’m hungry.”

She reached over and touched her leg, “We can get something once they clear you to leave.”

Ella grumbled, “I’m growing another person inside of me and I can’t get a snack? They better call me soon.”

Erin felt bad that she was making her wife sit in the ER, and she knew in her gut, Ella was right and she was fine, but she also was worried about what if, which was her reason dragging her to the ER. She also knew that she was going to have to pay for it when the got home, she knew that Ella melted when she came up with sketches for the baby. She went back to her elephant, she drew it standing on a paper airplane, but before she could finish it, she heard, “Ella McLeod?”

Ella stood up and walked over to the nurse and said, “Hi, I took a fall on the stairs, I caught myself before I hit the ground, I think I sprained my wrist. My wife is a worrier and she dragged me in here, it would be great if we could get out of here as soon as possible.”

The second the word ‘wife’ came out of Ella’s mouth, the nurse’s face changed from being soft and kind to almost angry, “Yeah, sure.” she said coldly. 

They followed the nurse back to an open bed who told Ella to sit. Erin narrowed her eyes at the nurse, and turned on her best southern charm that she learned from her time in the south, “Ma’am may I ask why you’re being so rude?”

The nurse shook her head and ignored Erin and turned to Ella, “So ma’am, you’re pregnant?”

Ella smiled and nodded and said, “Yeah, due at the end of August. It’s a girl.”

The nurse continued to frown while she went about taking Ella’s blood pressure, Erin was getting more and more frustrated. As the nurse leaned over to fill out her chart, Erin gave a look to her wife who looked back at her and rolled her eyes, “And this woman is related to you how?”

“She’s my wife,” Ella said furrowing her brow at the nurse.

“Are you sure?”

“Do you want me to go home and get the certificate or is my word enough for you?”

The nurse rolled her eyes.

“Look lady,” Erin said, making it clear that she had had enough, “I’m not sure what we did to you, but we’re just here so that my wife can get checked out. If there’s something about us that bothers you I would really appreciate if you would tell me what it is so it can be resolved.”

“Ma’am, I would like to do my job  and care for my patient and you’re interfering with me doing that. I’m doing you a favor by letting you sit here with your ‘wife’ and I really do not have to.”

“I fought like hell to get the life I have and as much as it may bother you that I am being true to myself,” Erin said sternly, “And if you don’t find my wife, who I am legally married to another nurse who doesn’t have a problem with us being women I will cause problems for both you and this hospital and I’m pretty sure neither of you want that. A discrimination suit looks pretty bad.”

The nurse looked terrified and hurried out of the room.

Ella raised her eyebrows, “Honey, you didn’t have to-”

Erin was enraged, “I’m not going to let somebody talk to you like that.”

“You’re not going to sue her, are you?”

“Of course not! I just said that so we could get a nurse who wasn’t such an ass.”

Ella sighed, “You owe me dinner and a foot rub for what you’re putting me through.”

“That’s fine.”

“In case you were wondering, the baby is kicking my bladder and I really have to pee, so we’re both fine.” 

“I know, but please, please let them look at your wrist,” Erin pleaded, “It’s already so bruised and swollen and it’s not even been that long.” 

“We’re already here, but if they don’t send somebody in here soon, I’m leaving to pee.”

“Well you don’t have to worry about that!” A new nurse said, she was younger than their last nurse, “I’m here and we’re gonna get you all checked out and good to go!”

Ella threw her head back, “Thank god!”

The nurse laughed, “I’m Grace, and I’ll be your nurse since you apparently threatened to sue Vicki. And between you and me, she’s a bitch and you should sue her. But back to you, I just wanna make sure that your chart is right because sometimes Vicki isn’t the best about charts. So, you’re Ella McLeod, you were born on April 3, 1986, and you fell on the stairs?”

Ella nodded.

“And you’re having a baby?”

Ella nodded again, “Yes, but she’s fine, I caught myself before my belly hit the ground. My wife is just a worrier and she dragged me here. I did sprain my wrist, though.”

Grace turned to Erin, “Did you see her fall?”

“No, she took our dog out and was gone for a while and he came to our door by himself so I went looking for her and found her sitting on the stairs.”

“Before I take a look at your wrist, I’m gonna check on the baby’s heart rate. I know you said that it’s fine, but we have to check,” after a few seconds,  they heard the baby’s heart beating away.

Ella looked over at her wife, “What did I tell you?”

Erin sighed, “She’s normally not this grumpy, we missed lunch for this and she’s hangry.”

The nurse laughed, “You’re not even the most angry person I’ve had to deal with today. Now, let me see that wrist of yours,” Ella held her wrist out for her to look at, “Wow, this is awfully bruised, how long ago did you fall?”

“Probably two hours ago,” Ella said, wincing as the nurse turned her wrist over.

“We try to avoid doing x-rays on pregnant women, but when there’s a chance of broken bones, like there might be here, we’re very careful when we do them.” 

Ella shook her head, “I know it’s not broken, there was no cracking sound or anything. I know what it feels like to break something, I played pro soccer for years, I’ve broken my fair share of bones and this is not a broken bone.”

“I’m sure you have, but we have to follow protocol. So we’re gonna do an x-ray and then have a doctor look at it.”

Ella sighed as the nurse set up the x-ray machine and Erin gave her and gave her an apologetic look, “Is it going to take a long time?” she asked.

“Not too long, but you’re going to have to get out,” the nurse said to Erin as she wrapped Ella in a lead blanket, “It’ll be like thirty seconds and then you can feel free to go to the bathroom while the doctor looks at it,” Ella laughed, Grace smiled, “I have a 2 year old at home I remember being pregnant all too well.”

After a few seconds, they were done with the x-rays, then Grace came back in and took the the lead blanket off of Ella and told her she was okay to go and she practically ran to the bathroom. 

Erin was still standing outside of the room and she laughed as she saw her wife speed walking toward the nearest bathroom, “Don’t laugh at me McLeod!” she shouted.

Erin smiled and turned to the nurse, “How’s her wrist looking?”

“I’m not an expert, but it looks pretty normal.”

“Not broken?”

“I don’t think it is, it looks like it’s been broken a few times before, but not this time.”

“Yeah she’s broken it a couple times.”

“I’m gonna go find a doctor to look at this, just to double check.”

Erin nodded and sat in the chair in the corner of the room, when Ella came back she smiled at her, “What?” she asked as she sat on the bed.

“Nothing, I just love you.”

“I love you too, but this doesn’t make up for the fact that you dragged me here to have them tell us what I already know.”

“I know, but you’ll forgive me in like a day.”

“I know,” Ella sighed.

“When the nurse looked at your x-ray, she said it looked like you broke your wrist a couple of times.”

“This might come as a shock, but I have broken my wrist more than a few times.”

Erin gave her a look and smirked, “I don’t need the sarcasm, Mrs. McLeod.”

The nurse returned with a doctor, and after he introduced himself he said, “Your wrist isn’t broken. By the looks of it, it’s a pretty nasty sprain. I would give it a few days, maybe even a week in a brace before you try using it for anything that’s too intense.”

Ella smiled and thanked him and he walked out, then  she looked at her wife, “What did I tell you?”

“I know! I’m sorry for being a concerned wife!”

“I know, honey.”

They discharged Ella and they left the hospital. 

“What do you want to eat, sunshine?”

“You’re going to feed me?”

Erin laughed as she held the car door open for her wife, “Yes, whatever you want.”

Ella raised her eyebrows, “Whatever I want?”

“Whatever you want, within reason. I’m not flying to Vancouver to get you a hamburger.”

“Damn it! I was going to ask for that!” 

Erin smiled as they pulled out of the hospital’s parking lot, “Where are we going or am I cooking for you?”

Ella sighed, “I’m honestly sick of wearing a bra and I want to put on a pair of shorts. You’re cooking, the fridge is pretty full.”

Erin reached for Ella’s hand, “I’m sorry that I dragged you here, but when I saw you on the ground, I honestly didn’t know what to do. I worry about you even though I know I never have to. You’re my world and if something happened to you I don’t know what I’d do.”

Ella squeezed her hand, “I know, but look, I’m fine, it’s just a sprained wrist and the baby is really fine. She’s been kicking this whole time.”

“I’m so glad.”

~

When they got home, Ella ran into the bedroom and put on a sports bra and a pair of gym shorts that were quickly going to be too small and walked into the kitchen to find Erin cutting vegetables. She wrapped her arms around her, “I have to buy more shorts, all of mine are getting too small.”

Erin set her knife down and turned around and wrapped her arms around her wife and kissed her nose, “Okay.”

“Your daughter is kicking me in the ribs.” 

Erin ran her hand over Ella’s tree tattoo on her side, “My daughter? She’s inside of you, there’s not much I can do to stop her right now.”

“Yes, she’s yours. I’ve decided that I’m going to blame you for all of my baby related aches and pains from now on, so she is your daughter right now because you cause me aches and pains all the time and she’s taking after you.”

“But you love me,” Erin said peppering her wife’s face with kisses.

“I guess,” Ella smiled leaning further into Erin, “I might love you a little bit.”

“I might love you a lotta bit, "Ella started kissing Erin’s neck and Erin bit her lip, she sighed “El, I have food on the stove. Once it’s cooked we can do more of this.”

“Good please hurry.”

“You can’t rush perfection, babe.”

“No, but you can actually cook the food and stop flirting with me!”

Erin laughed and said, “I suppose you’re right.”

“I’m always right.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” she joked as she dumped the chicken into the pan.

“I would,” she said, playfully smacking Erin’s butt before winking and walking away, “You know where to find me when you’re done.”

Erin thought that it was probably in her best interest to finish cooking as quickly as possible because her wife was not a patient woman when she wanted certain things. Normally, she would wash the dishes right after she was done cooking, but today, she took the food out of the pan and put it in a container and threw it in the fridge. Then she headed into their room in search of her wife, she was in the closet putting laundry away, so Erin wrapped her arms around Ella from behind. She started kissing her neck, “Finally!” Ella said.

“Dinner’s ready.”

Ella slipped out of her arms, took her hand and led her to their bed, “Screw dinner.”

Erin smirked, “Okay.”

They were all cuddled up in bed, when Ella felt her stomach start to growl, “So about dinner.”

“I can bring you some, if you want,” Erin said softly tucking a strand of Ella’s hair behind her ear. 

“I’ll go get it. You stay, I’ll bring you some, we’re not done here yet,” she said kissing her, climbing out of bed and putting on a shirt that was laying on the floor.

“We’re not done yet?”

“No, ma’am. I was just warming up.”

Erin laughed, “Okay, sunshine.”

Ella paused and leaned against the door frame, “I love you, I know I say it everyday, but I really love you, like a lot.”

“I love you a lot too, but go get dinner, I’ll still be here when you get back.”

“Good,” Ella said.

“I hate to see you go, but watching you leave isn’t bad!” Erin said loud enough for Ella to hear from the kitchen.

“Was that about my butt?” she yelled from the kitchen.

“Always about your butt!” Ella pulled the food that Erin put in the fridge an hour before and set it out on two plates  and put them in the microwave. She walked the short distance to their room and stood in the door, “How is it that you can only wear a t-shirt and look that good?”

“I have no idea, but I feel really good. Like I haven’t felt this good in months.”

“I’m -” Erin couldn’t finish her sentence because the microwave dinged and Ella ran off to get their dinner. She came back with two plates and handed one to Erin and kissed her cheek, “Thank you.”

“Anytime for you, babe.”

“El, we’re not going to have time to sit here like this when we have a kid.”

“We will, it’ll just be late at night. The sex might not be as much, but we’ll manage. We went basically the whole World Cup without it and we survived.”

“Barely.”

Ella laughed, “Barely, but we did it and we can do it again.”

Erin set her head on Ella’s shoulder, and sighed, “Hopefully.”

“It’s going to be fine!” Ella assured her, “Are you done?”

“Sure,” she said, handing Ella her plate.

Ella set the plates on her bedside table before turning back to her wife and kissing that weak spot on her neck. She didn’t intend to leave a mark on her neck, when she was done because the girls on the team teased them about it, but she did. When they both played, they would frequently show up to practices and team outings with hickeys and sometimes bite marks in places that the girls could see.

Erin let out a shaky breath as she ran her hands through Ella’s hair.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm so sorry about the long delay between chapters. I'm done with school for the summer, so chapter updates should be a little more regular!  
> Again I'm sorry about the wait!

 Erin woke to the clatter of pans falling out of a cabinet, she climbed out of bed and padded over to the kitchen to find Ella mixing something in a bowl, “El, what are you doing?” she asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“I’m making pancakes!” she said, pushing her bangs out of her eyes.

“You do know we have a flight in a few hours and we have to pack, right?”

“I do.”

“So why are you making pancakes now?”

“I woke up this morning and remembered how good my mom is at making pancakes and I started thinking about how I don’t how to make good pancakes and we’re gonna have a kid that needs to eat pancakes and I don’t want them to be crappy.” 

Erin walked over to her and hugged her, “Let me help you.”

Ella nodded and handed the bowl to her wife to keep mixing while she got out a pan, “I made coffee for you.”

“You’re the best,” Erin said leaning over and kissing her. 

“I know.”

“I’m so excited to go to Chicago,” Erin said leaning her back against the counter and sipping her coffee, “I miss those munchkins.”

“I do too! But when I was facetiming with the girls the other day, they were like ‘we miss Auntie Erin’ and I asked if they missed me and they said, ‘yeah but Auntie Erin is more fun’ and then Anaiah said, ‘you used to be fun before you had a baby in your belly’. Then Cambria said, ‘it’s okay, Auntie Ella, I think you’re fun even though you have a baby in your belly because you can play dolls with me’ .”

“It’s just because you can’t play soccer with her. She still loves you.”

“I know, but I used to be the fun aunt and then I got pregnant and now I have to be careful because I don’t want something to happen to the baby, but I miss playing soccer and rough housing with those girls.”

“It’s not going to be that much longer before you can do all that stuff again,” Erin said handing her wife a spatula so that she could flip the pancakes.

“I know, but we’re going to see them this weekend and they’re gonna wanna play like we used to and I can’t and I feel so bad.”

“Don’t feel bad,” she said, wrapping her into a hug, “At least they have one aunt who can be cool.”

Ella pulled away and smacked Erin’s arm with the spatula, “You think you’re so funny.”

“I don’t think I’m funny, I know I am!”

“I really hope this baby doesn’t get your sense of humor.”

“El?”

“Yes?”

“You’re burning the pancakes.” 

“Shit!” she yelled, “First I can’t be a good aunt and now I’m not going to be a good mom!”

Erin took the pan off the stove, and dumped burnt pancake in the trash before wrapping Ella into another hug, “You’re going to be a great mom and you’re already an amazing aunt. It was one pancake and I was distracting you, it’s going to be okay.”

Ella cried into Erin’s shirt, “I’m not.” 

“Yes you are, the girls love you and you’ve been ready to be a mom for years,” she said rubbing her wife’s back, “You can doubt yourself all you want, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re going to be the best mom.”

Ella sniffled.

“I know that when she’s here you’re going to be great. A burned pancake means nothing.”

“I know,” Ella said, shakily, “But I’m just so scared.”

She kissed her forehead, “Come back to bed, we’re going to talk about it.”

Erin sat in the bed with her back to the wall and opened her arms to Ella, who laid her head on her chest, “What are you scared about?”

“Everything,” she sighed, “I’m scared to have her, I’m scared that when she’s here, I’m going to do something wrong and it’s gonna hurt her, I’m scared we’re gonna do something and screw her up. I’m scared about everything.”

Erin played with her hair, “I know that it’s scary, I’m scared too. But when you go into labor, I will be right there with you. Every second. And we’ve watched newborns before. Remember when we watched Grey when she was a few weeks old? She was a horror and we managed and she’s still alive and causing all sorts of trouble.”

“Yeah, but we got to give her back after a few hours. We can’t give our kid back after a few hours because she’s actually ours!”

Erin smiled, “I know, that’s sort of what we signed up for.”

“I know, but what if we do something wrong?”

“Then we do something wrong, I’m sure our parents didn’t do everything right and we turned out okay. I mean shit, my parents moved us to Thailand when we were kids and it sucked but here I am, doing pretty okay. I’ve got a cool dog and a hot wife that I’m lucky enough to be having a kid with and I mean, your parents weren’t perfect, but you are so I honestly don’t believe that she’s going to be screwed up.”

Ella curled into Erin and sighed, “I seriously can’t believe that we’re having a kid sometimes. I never thought this would happen.”

“Neither did I,” she said as she kissed the top of Ella’s head.

“It’s so scary but I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything more.” 

“I feel the same way,” Erin whispered, setting a hand on her wife’s belly, “I’ve never wanted to meet somebody more in my entire life.” 

“She’s kicking my ribs right now, being a little shit like her mother.”

“Oh, aren’t you funny.”

Ella looked up at her, “I am, and you are a little shit.”

“I think we need to pack,” Erin said. 

She sighed, “I guess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on the internet at mcleod-y.tumblr.com


	30. Chapter 30

When the pair arrived at the airport, they were greeted by a handful of Erin’s teammates who had gotten there early. They sat and talked until the rest of the team and staff had showed up and then they checked in. While Ella was still in the security line, Erin walked over to Randy and asked, “Is it okay if we fly back a day later? Ella’s family is gonna throw her a baby shower and she doesn’t know--”

“I’m gonna stop you right there, Erin,” Randy paused when he noticed Ella was nearby, “You can absolutely if continue your training and keep working like you do and there is no doubt that you will be able to do it,” he said watching as Ella walked past them with her eyebrow raised, once she was out of earshot, he started again, “Yes, you can stay an extra day in Chicago.”

“Thank you so much!”

“Of course! You girls deserve to have a day off after all that you do for the club.”

Erin smiled and thanked him again before catching up to Bianca and saying, “I need you to act like we’re having a serious conversation about goalkeeping or something. Ella’s family is planning a surprise baby shower and I had to talk to Randy about letting us fly back a day late and she’s heard me on the phone with her sister. So, just nod now and say something.”

B nodded and said something as they watched Ella laughed at something Ben said, after making sure that she wasn’t paying any attention to them, B said, “You’re going to surprise her?”

“It was her sister’s idea, I’m just supposed to get her there.”

“Interesting.”

“Since this is the only trip she’s gonna be able to make before she’s not supposed to fly anymore and they’re not sure if they’re all going to able to make it down before the baby’s born, they wanted to do it now while they know  we’re in town.”

“That kid is honestly the most loved kid I’ve ever heard of and she’s not even born yet,” B said bumping her shoulder into Erin, “She’s got her moms and all of her aunts and her uncle and then there’s all of us and we’re so pumped that you guys are having a kid. Mostly because we got sick of listening to Ella talk about how badly she wanted one but also Harps is getting too old to think we’re the coolest anymore..”

Erin laughed, “It’s been something we’ve been talking about for years. Like almost since the beginning.”

“Really?” B asked.

“I mean I knew she was it after, like, two weeks. It might’ve taken a little longer for her, but even so it was only a few months before we started talking about it.”

B crinkled her nose, “Really?”

“Absolutely. When you know, you know.”

B bit her lip and nodded. 

“Do you know what I mean?” Erin asked, raising her eyebrows at her.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss this with you in the middle of the airport,” she said as her face began to redden and picking up her pace to catch up with Kealia.

“We’re not done with this talk ma’am,” she said loud enough for B to hear. Then she reached for her phone and texted Liza to let her know that everything was good to go. After that, she caught up to her wife, and asked, “What are your plans for the evening?”

“When we get to Chicago?”

“No when we get to Kalamazoo,” Erin said sarcastically

Ella rolled her eyes, “I don’t have any plans.”

“Wanna go to that pizza place we went to on our first date?”

“You can’t eat pizza,” Ella said matter of factly, “You’re off gluten.”

“I know, they have other food there though.”

“Don’t you have team bonding things to do?”

“I think it’ll only be an hour.”

“Oh I suppose I’ll go on a date with you. Considering that you washed your hair yesterday,” Ella said as she put her backpack in the overhead of their row.

~

After a slightly bumpy flight that made Erin think that her hand was going to be broken, they landed in Chicago. 

Since they were traveling with the team, they didn’t room together. Erin went to pick Ella up after she was done with her meeting. Ella opened the door wearing an oversized sweatshirt and running shorts. She wrapped her arms around Erin and said, “I don’t feel good. Can I get a raincheck on the pizza?”

“Yeah,” Erin said softly.

“We can still go on a walk if you want, though. I just can’t eat, the heartburn is just so intense.” 

Erin kissed the top of her head, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she sighed, “This baby better have the thickest head of hair for all of the pain that she’s putting me through, if that heartburn equals hair thing isn’t true I’m going to fight somebody.”

Erin laughed and asked, “Is there somewhere in particular you wanted to walk to?”

“No, I just know that walking is good and I want to get out of this room.” 

She nodded, “It’s still a little chilly out, you might want to put on some pants so your legs don’t freeze off.” 

Ella went to her suitcase and said, “It’s a good thing I overpacked.” 

Erin smiled, “I guess so.” 

Ella grabbed her wife’s hand and they walked together to the elevator, there was another person in the elevator and Erin, out of habit, let go of Ella’s hand. The man stepped out of the elevator on the next floor, and she noticed that Ella’s face had fallen. “What’s going on?” she asked concerned. 

“It’s stupid,” Ella said shaking, shaking her head.

“I’m sure it’s not.”

“You let go of my hand,” Ella blurted out, “And I know it’s stupid because we do it Texas all the time, but like, I don’t want to anymore.”

“Okay.”

“It’s just that you’re my family and I want to hold your hand in public and I don’t care if people stare at us and say things anymore. I don’t care who sees, it took me long enough to get you and I want people to know that you’re my wife when we’re in public. And I want them to wonder how I landed you.”

Erin leaned over and kissed her cheek, “I don’t think that’s what they’ll be wondering because somehow I managed to get the most beautiful woman on the earth to marry me. But I will gladly hold your hand in public for as long as you want me to.”

“I love you,” Ella said, squeezing Erin’s hand.

“I love you, too,” Erin said, smiling over at her as the elevator doors opened in the lobby and they stepped out, “Do you wanna go to Millennium Park and people watch?”

Millennium Park was their place in Chicago, much like Deep Cove was in Vancouver. It was the place they went to be with each other.  They would sit on a bench near The Bean and watch the tourists as they posed and took pictures  in front of it. Millennium was also the place where Ella first realized that she was really falling for Erin, “Yeah, I would like that.”

They walked hand in hand through the streets of Chicago, occasionally pointing out places that they had gone on dates and laughing at the memories they had, when Ella said, “I wish we met in a city that we could use as a name. There’s no such thing as a kid named Chicago, that’s cruel.”

“We could totally name her Chicago.” 

“Not in a million years, babe.”

“So I know we’re not planning on naming her Chicago but we did live in a house on Hazel Street and Hazel is a real name for people.”  
Ella thought for a second, “Hazel isn’t bad. It’s a little old school, but old school isn’t bad, we’ll add it to the list.”

“Remember that Irish pub that we used to go to? What was it called?”

“The place on River?”

“Yeah!”

“Lizzie something. But we’re not naming our kid after a bar that we got drunk in and then had sex in their bathroom.”

Erin smiled to herself, “That was a good time.”

Ella felt her face turn red, “It was, but we’re not about to have a kid named after any place that we had sex in.”

“Okay, well what about River? Not like the name of the street where Lizzie’s was, but like the riverwalk?”

“I don’t know, it’s just okay.”

“I like it, I mean I still think Chicago is a very good name choice.”

“She doesn’t like it, she’s kicking my ribs and saying, ‘Mom, please don’t do this to me! Please don’t name me Chicago!’”

Erin laughed, “Okay Chicago’s out! Goodness!”

Ella bumped their shoulders together, “Your daughter thanks you.”

“Oh she’s welcome.” 

~

Erin led her over to a bench right by The Bean, they sat for an hour and laughed at the tourists posing for pictures. They always laughed at them, but they also knew that they would end up taking a selfie or twelve in front of it too. 

Ella stood up and offered her hand to Erin, “Shall we?”

“Already?”

“Yes, I have to pee.”

Erin laughed, “You went before we left, though!”

“Yes, I know, but this kid is sitting on my bladder and I’ve gotta go again.”

“Okay,” Erin said, knitting her fingers together with her wife’s, “Pictures before we go?”

“Of course, especially because the next time we’re here we’re gonna have a baby with us.” 

“I love that,” she said, giving Ella a kiss, “and I love you.”

“I love you too, so much.”

“So pictures,” Erin started.

“Beat you to it, honey,” Ella said, pulling out her phone and leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

Erin was laughing, so Ella made sure to get a couple of shots of that and then she stuck her tongue out and Erin made a weird face. Then they headed back to their hotel.

Back in Ella’s hotel room, Erin sat on the bed and waited for Ella to finish in the bathroom, she decided to post one of their pictures. She chose one where they were making silly faces and captioned it, “ _ @erinmcleod1: always a good laugh with my love @emasar3” _

Ella came out of the bathroom and laid on the bed, “Give me your hand.”

Erin put her hand in Ella’s.

“The baby’s kicking the crap out of my side and I want you to feel it.”

“Woah!” she said when she felt the kicks, she got close to Ella’s belly, “Hey little love, it this something you do all the time?” she felt the baby kick again, “I’ll take that as a yes. I just want you to know that I love you and your mom a lot.  I can’t wait to meet you, but you should stay in there for a while longer.”

Ella was running her hands through Erin’s hair, her eyes were welling up. Watching Erin talk to their baby made her more happy than she could ever even begin to imagine. Erin kissed her belly before kissing Ella, “I have to go to bed before Randy kills me, you know how he is about going to bed at a reasonable hour.”

“Do you want me to walk you to your room?” Ella asked as she stood  and followed Erin to the door.

“No, thanks, I know how we are and we’re gonna wake up everybody around us, plus I’m pretty sure Moe is already asleep in there.”

“Okay,” Ella said leaning on her door.

Erin leaned down and kissed her, “You’re meeting your sisters before the game, right?”

“Yeah, in the morning.”

“Okay, I’ll see you after the game then?”

“Or I’ll sneak into the locker room before and wish you guys luck? Plus the girls are probably gonna want to rub my belly for good luck again.”

“Oh yeah, that’s true. Well, I will see you then.”

Ella kissed her, “Goodnight, I love you.” 

“I love you too, have a good day,” she said opening the door.

“Wait, one more for good luck,” Ella said kissing her again.

“Sleep tight. I’ll see you.”

“Bye, honey,” Ella said as she closed the door.

She headed toward the bathroom and brushed her teeth before climbing into bed and turned on the TV. She watched HGTV and laid in bed with her hand on her belly feeling the baby kick.  Sometimes, usually when Erin was away, she would just think about how lucky she was. To have a family of her own was her dream since she was little and she was lucky enough to get to do that with somebody who she loved more than she even had the words to explain. People had told her that she didn’t know how much she could possibly love somebody until she had a baby, but she wasn’t sure she believed them because she loved Erin with her whole entire heart and she knew Erin felt the same about her. She began to talk to the baby, “Hey Little Love, I just wanted to let you know how much your mama and I love you, because we love you a whole whole lot. We’re in Chicago and we’re gonna go hang out with your aunts tomorrow and then we’re gonna go see your mama play and we’re gonna get to see your cousins. They’re so fun, you’re gonna love them when you get old enough to play with them,” she felt the baby move her hand along her side, “If that’s you asking to come out and play, the answer is no, as much as I want to meet you, you have to stay in there a little longer and get cute.” 

She felt herself getting sleepy, so she reached over and turned the light off, the baby was still kicking, she tried to ignore it, but she couldn’t get comfortable. She groaned and reached for the pillows on the other bed and tried to make herself more comfortable, but it still didn’t work. After tossing and turning for what felt like most of the night she finally fell asleep.


	31. Chapter 31

   Ella woke up to a text from her sister, _“Ser and I are gonna be at your hotel in 20 mins you don’t have to be ready we just miss you”_

She typed out a quick ‘okay’, got out of bed and went to the bathroom. As she brushed her teeth, she looked at her belly, which had seemingly grown overnight, but thankfully had no new stretch marks. 

She had just put a proper bra and a t-shirt on when she heard a knock at her door, she walked over and looked through her peephole to see her sisters standing making faces at her. She opened the door, to let them in and Liza screamed, “Sis!” as she hugged her and then touched her belly, “Look at you! You’re such a cute pregnant lady!”

“Thanks, Wooze,” she smiled widely, hugging her twin.

“Liza, let go of her, I want to see my baby sister too,” Seredy said.

“Okay, okay. I missed you sis!” Liza sighed. 

“I missed you too, Wooze,” Ella smiled before letting go of her sister.

Then Seredy took her in her arms, “Hey, El.”

“Hi Ser.”

“How are you? How’s the baby?”

“I’m good, she’s good too. I think she’s asleep right now, since I’ve been awake and moving around for a little bit.”

“Are you sleeping?” Seredy asked as she walked over and sat on the bed.

“Yeah, but not well. The second I decide to lay down and go to sleep, she decides  decides it’s time to practice her kicks.”

“Does she have a name yet?” Liza asked laying on Ella’s bed.

“No,” Ella sighed, “We have a long list, but we were thinking that her middle name would be Willow sort of after Pops. But I’m starting to think that we’re not going to have a name for her until we see her. Which kinda sucks because I want to call her something else other than Little Love.”

“The girls still think you should name her after the Frozen characters. I don’t know how you feel about Elsa and Anna, but they’re pretty sold on it.”

Ella laughed, “I don’t think Erin’s gonna be too big into that.”

Liza raised an eyebrow, “I think the girls could probably talk her into it.”

Ella laid next to her sister, “Probably, what are we doing today? I need to know how to dress.”

“Not much, I was thinking we could maybe go shopping and get lunch before I have to go pick the girls up from school and then we’d meet you at the game,” Seredy said as she looked at her sisters from the other bed.

“Sounds good,” Ella said as she stretched, “Wooze, she’s kicking.” 

Liza sat up, “What?”

Ella grabbed her hand and put it on the spot where the baby was kicking, “Can you feel it?”

Liza’s eyes got wide, “Yeah! They’re so much strong than they were a few weeks ago!”

“She’s a lot bigger than she was almost two months ago.”

“Your belly has gotten a lot bigger since the last time we saw you,” Liza said thinking back to their birthday. 

“It’s what happens when you get pregnant, Wooze.”

“I know that!” Liza said indignantly. 

“Speaking of,” Seredy said, “Are you planning on giving our kids some cousins any time soon?”

Liza turned red, “Sooner rather than later.”

“Really?” Ellas asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Why are you red?” Seredy asked, narrowing her eyes at her sister.

“Because I don’t wanna talk about this.”

Ella looked at her, “What’s going on Wooze?”

“Nothing!” Liza said, flustered. 

“Are you pregnant right now?” Ella asked, seriously, “Do not lie to me.”

“We just found out. We’re trying to keep it a secret until we know for sure that everything’s okay.” 

“Are you serious?” Ella asked, her face lighting up.

“Yes, but sis, it’s a secret.” 

“I don’t know why you told El, she literally can’t keep a secret to save her life. But congrats, Liza.” 

Ella threw a pillow at her older sister, “That’s not true! I didn’t tell you I was pregnant until almost a month after Erin and I found out!”

“You also didn’t talk to anybody other than Liza for that whole month too, if I’m remembering correctly.”

“Okay, that might be true but this isn’t about me! Wooze is gonna have a baby! How are you feeling?”

“I feel the same as I did before I found out I was pregnant.” 

“I think the first thing that I noticed after I found out was that things started tasting different. Like Erin would cook things that I loved and I would take a bite and have to run to the bathroom.”

“Don’t scare her, Ella,” Seredy said sternly. 

“I would never!” 

“Can we go now?” Liza asked impatiently.

“As soon as Ella gets dressed.”

“Yes ma’am,” Ella said climbing out of the bed again. 

“How’s your baby mama, sis?” Liza asked.

“My baby mama?” Ella asked peeking her head out of the bathroom.

“Yes, the other mother of your child.”

“Oh! She’s good.”

“And she’s taking care of you?”

“When I need her to. She gives a really good foot rub and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t ask her for them before I got pregnant,” she said pulling a shirt over her head, “Because I was really missing out.”

“Els, we can talk about how great your wife is on the way out of this hotel,” Liza said, appearing in the bathroom door, “Put some pants on for the love of god and let’s get out of here.”

“Where are we even going?” Ella asked as she pulled a pair of jeans over her legs. 

“I think we’re gonna go to a few baby stores, you know look at all those cute little baby clothes and all the tiny soft things,” Seredy said.

“We haven’t really bought a lot of clothes yet, just a few onesies with animals on the butts that Erin’s obsessed with and a few little jerseys. But it’s not like we could buy anything here because we don’t have enough space to fly with it.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t look!” Seredy said as she opened the door, “Plus, I have to buy my little sisters cute matching baby outfits.”

Ella laughed, “You don’t have to do that, Ser.”

Liza agreed with her twin, “You really don’t.”

“I know I don’t, but I highly doubt the two of you are going to be pregnant at the same time again.”

~

“Ser look at this!” Ella said, holding up a little light blue onesie that had little ice cream cones printed on it. 

They were in a baby store downtown looking at clothes and other baby things. Ella’s sisters were taking note of anything that she said she liked because Seredy lied about having to go pick up the girls, her husband was doing that today. She was going back to the store to buy gifts for Ella’s surprise baby shower the next day. They had a whole plan to send Tyson to pick Ella and Erin up at the airport so that Ella was in the dark about it until the very last minute and their whole family and some of her friends from college would be there at their mom’s house.

“You like that, El?” Liza said, wrinkling her nose at her over a rack of clothes.

“Yeah, it’s cute and not pink which is good because we don’t want to buy a lot of pink because we  know her aunts are going to buy her a lot of little pink bows and outfits.”

“Whatever floats your boat, I guess.”

“It does,” Ella said, sticking her tongue out at her.

“Ella,” Seredy called across the store.

“Seredy,” she called back.

“Come look at this.”

Ella walked over to her older sister, “Strollers?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna need one eventually.”

“But not until August, and I think this is one of those things that Erin’s gonna wanna do her research on.”

“I guess that’s true, okay what about one of these baby sling things? I didn’t have one with the girls, but I’ve heard people really like them.” 

“Ser, I’m not going to buy anything, I don’t have anywhere to pack it.” 

“Just look at them, which ones do you like? You know if I were to buy something like it for you as a gift when my wonderful niece arrives.”

She looked at them and pointed at a gray sling with paisleys, “I guess I like that one.”

“Interesting, you can go look at other things now.”

After looking at baby blankets and wondering why they were so much softer than any blanket meant for an adult, the three decided it was time for lunch. They walked down the street to a restaurant where they sat and ordered their food. 

“The girls are so excited to see you and Erin,” Seredy said, taking a sip of her water, “It’s literally all they’ve been talking about for the last week. Cambria told her teacher that her aunts were pro soccer players and when I picked her up the woman asked me if she made it up.”

Ella laughed, “What did you say?”

“I explained to her that yes, my little sister and her wife were professional soccer players, but that you were retired and the lady didn’t even believe that we have a women’s pro league in the States.”

Ella rolled her eyes, “You literally live in a city with an NWSL team and she had no idea?”

“None.”

Ella rolled her eyes once more, “I can’t believe that, the Red Stars have decent media people, it’s not like they’re a secret like c’mon.”

“El, there’s nothing we can do about it right now,” Liza said.

“I know,” she said, “But that doesn’t make me any less annoyed.”

“She knows now, though,” Seredy said.

Their food arrived and they began to eat, “Can I come with you to pick up the girls?” Ella asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

Seredy froze, she knew that if she didn’t come up with a halfway decent reason as to why Ella couldn’t come with her, their cover would be blown and Ella would know that something was up, “I, uh, have a conference with Anaiah’s teacher.”

“Okay,” Ella said, leaning back in her chair.

Seredy couldn’t believe that Ella actually bought her lame excuse, “I’ll make sure we get to the game early so you can hang out with them.”

“Good, I miss those little buggers.”

“They missed you too and Erin, Naiah missed her a hell of a lot. Like more so than usual.”

“We’re both really excited to see them.”

~

After saying goodbye to her sisters back at the hotel, Ella took the bus to the stadium with the team. As the team got ready, she stood with Ben and they joked about her time with the Dash. “Are they gonna make you stand by the locker room door so they can touch your belly again?” he asked.

“I think so, it’s like their good luck thing I guess,” Ella shrugged.

“They’re a bunch of weirdos,” Ben said, “Look at Moe, she’s been playing soccer long enough to have a real cleat bag, but here she is with her plastic bag.”

She laughed, “To each their own, I guess.”

“They’re still a bunch of weirdos.”

“Be nice! I was one of those weirdos! Hell, I married one of those weirdos,” Ella said as she watched Erin make a face at Bianca.

“You’re still one of those weirdos.”

“Thanks, Ben, you’re so kind.”

Randy came in and said, “Alright ladies, let’s get out there!” Before turning around and leaving.

“I’ll see you later, Ben,” Ella said turning to the door.

Ella stood by the door and wished the girls good luck as they reached out for her belly. Erin was last, as always, and on her way out the door, Ella smacked her butt and said, “Get ‘em killer.”

Erin smiled, “Thanks babe.”

Ella winked at her before going up the stairs to find her seat.

Anaiah and Cambria saw her before she saw them and they came running down the stairs of the stadium shouting, “Auntie Ella!” 

“Munchkins!”

Anaiah got to her first and hugged her, “I missed you!”

“I missed you too, Naiah.”

Cambria ran into them, “Hi Auntie Ella.”

“Hello, little one.”

“Where’s our new cousin?” Cambria asked.

“Why don’t we go to our seats and we can talk about it?” 

The girls took her hands and led Ella to their seats. She said hello to her sisters and brother before the girls asked once again, “Where’s our new cousin?”

“She’s still in my belly,” she said, pointing to her belly, “Maybe the next time I see you she’ll be here.”

“Promise?” Cambria asked.

“I can’t really promise, but I can say that she’ll probably be here the next time I come to visit and you know what? Auntie Erin and I will make sure we let you two know she’s here as soon as we can, deal?”

“Deal!” They smiled at her.

Cambria climbed into her lap and hugged her, “I love you, Auntie Ella,” she said in her sweet little voice.

“I love you too, Bria.” 

“Where’s Auntie Erin?” 

Ella scanned the field and saw Erin standing behind the goal on the far end of the field laughing as Bianca dove in an attempt to save a shot and pointed her out to the girls, they started calling her name and waving. Eventually, Erin heard their shouting and waved back at them. 

After warm ups were over, the teams lined up for introductions and the game started. It was slow at the beginning, mostly just passing in the mid field, but near the end of the first half, K scored and brought the score to 1-0. Then in the second half, Erin made a big save off the crossbar and then the whistle blew and Ella and her family were almost the only ones cheering for the Dash at the end of the game. 

“Do you guys want to go see her?” Ella asked her nieces.

They both nodded eagerly.

Ella took their hands and led them down to the first row of the stadium where they waited until Erin got to them.

“Hey munchkins!” Erin said, smiling. Ella lifted the girls up and handed them one after the other down to Erin so they could run around of the field, they hugged her before running off to kick a ball, “How’d I do?” Erin asked.

“Amazing as usual,” Ella said leaning on the bars, “Naiah and Bria were amazed. You’re pretty much their hero.”

Erin smiled, “Thanks.”

Ella touched her hand, “There’s people calling your name, honey, go sign things. We’ll be here when you’re done.”

“Okay.”

“Can you grab Thing One and Thing Two for me? Ser would kill me we left them alone on the field.” 

Erin ran out to the middle of the field and picked the one girl up with each arm and carried them back to Ella. 

~

They rode back to the hotel in the back of Seredy’s van with the girls, they sang songs and talked about how preschool was going. 

After they said goodbye to their family, they walked to Ella’s hotel room. Erin crawled into the bed while Ella was in the bathroom and fell asleep. 

Ella walked out to see her wife fast asleep, normally, she would just let her sleep, but she knew the road rules. Roads rules meant no bed sharing. Ella kissed her forehead, “Honey, you've gotta go back to your room.” 

Erin sighed in her sleep.

“As much as I would like you to stay here, you need to get out.”

“No,” she said sleepily.

“I’ll walk you to your room,” Ella said, running her fingers through Erin’s hair.

“Okay,” she sighed, sitting up and getting out of bed.

Ella took her hand and they walked down the hall to Erin’s door, “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.”

“What? Oh, yeah we’re going back to Houston,” she yawned.

“Give me a kiss, I’m going to bed.”

Erin leaned down, kissed her wife and said, “Good night.”

“I love you,” she smiled

“Love you too,” Erin said as she fumbled with her key card.


	32. Chapter 32

Ella met the rest of the Dash in the lobby of the hotel before they all climbed onto a bus and headed toward the airport. They were about to check in when Erin told her to turn around, “Why?” she asked.

“Because I think you might’ve dropped your ID. I’ll  go check us in,” Erin said stepping up to the counter, as Ella looked around the floor by the entrance to the airport. But she wasn’t checking in, she was switching their flight to Houston to the next day. 

“I didn’t drop anything,” Ella said, irritated

“Oh, well nevermind then,” Erin said, leading Ella away from the counter.

“Why are you acting so weird?” Ella asked raising an eyebrow at her.

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but we got bumped from our flight so we’re going to fly back tomorrow.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“We have nowhere to go, what are we supposed to do?” Ella said, starting to freak out.

“I’m not sure, but let’s go outside and take a breath.”  

Ella nodded, “Okay.” 

Erin took her hand and led her out to the pick up section of the airport where Ella saw her brother standing there with a sign that said, “Mrs. & Mrs. McLeod”.

“What’s going on? Why is my brother here?”

“Just go with it, babe.”

Ella walked toward her brother, looking even more confused, “Hey Els!” Tyson said happily wrapping her in a hug.

“What’s going on Ty? I thought we got bumped off our flight but you’re here with a sign and Erin won’t tell me.” 

“I can’t tell you anything, I’m just here to drive the car.”

“Drive? Where?” Ella asked, still confused.

“Can’t say,” he said, “But you should get in the car or we’re gonna be late.”

“Late to what?”

“I can’t tell you that Ella! I would if I could, but I can’t. Just get in the car,” he said, holding the back door open to them.

Ella rolled her eyes and got in the backseat of the car. Erin got in the other side and tried to reach for Ella’s hand, “Nothing for you until you tell me what’s going on.”

“I really want to tell you, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy.” 

Tyson got in the car and handed Ella a little pink envelope, “Open this.”

She tore open the envelope to reveal a card with little pink footprints on the front, she opened and saw a note in her twin’s handwriting,  _ ‘We’re so excited to have another niece, even if she’s a Canadian! Love you!’ _

“This doesn’t tell me what’s going on!”

“I’m sorry, El, it’ll be worth it I swear.” 

Ella grumbled for almost the entire car ride to her mom’s, “Why are we at mom’s?” Ella asked when she realized they were driving through her childhood neighborhood.

“Not gonna tell you,” Tyson said as he pulled into the driveway.

At this point, Ella was getting angry with how little information that she was being given about what was going on. Tyson got out of the car and opened Ella’s door, “Do not go to the porch until I tell you to, got it?”

Ella rolled her eyes, but nodded.

Erin took her hand as they waited for Tyson to tell them it was okay to go.

Ella looked up at her wife and asked, “Do you know what’s going on?”

Erin bit her lip and nodded, “I do, but not a lot. I just had to help get you here.”

Ella hit her arm, “And you didn’t tell me?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You’re the worst.”

“I absolutely am,” she said sarcastically as Tyson told them that they could go in.

They walked into an empty house, “Mom?” Ella said loud enough to carry through the house.

“I’m out back honey,” they heard her mom yell back. All the blinds in the back of the house were closed, which Ella thought was strange because her mother never closed the blinds, she was a creature of the light.

Ella looked at her wife, “Go on, love,” Erin said, letting her go before her.

She opened the door and saw a sea of people who shouted, “Surprise!”

Ella gasped, “Oh my god!”  There were pink balloons and baby things all over the backyard, her whole family was there, and some of her friends from college and a handful of Red Stars that had been there when she and Erin played with them.

She felt herself getting teary when Seredy and Liza came up to her and said, “Sorry we kept you in the dark, we just really wanted it to be a surprise.”

Ella hugged them.

“Did we do well?” Liza asked.

“Yes!” Ella laughed, wiping the tears from her face, “Don’t ever do it again!”

Everybody laughed.

“I'm serious! No more surprises! I'll kill you!”

“You wouldn't have agreed to this if we told you about it!”

She looked over to Erin, “I can't believe you didn't tell me about this!”

“I told you I was threatened if I did!” 

“Never again! No more surprises from anybody!” 

Liza laughed, “We can’t promise that, and before you start to give Erin hell, she doesn’t know anything else.”

~

After some of what Erin thought to be really dumb games, they were sat in chairs in front of their whole family so they could open gifts.

They got a lot of onesies and and pacifiers, which Ella called a nu nu. Ella later explained that when her nieces were learning to speak they called their pacifiers nu nus and it just stuck. Then there was one box left, wrapped in gray paper with a giant pink bow on it. Seredy handed it to them and said, “This is from Liza, mom, Ty, and I.”

Ella took the bow off and ripped open the paper, on top of another box was a note in her brother’s hand writing: 

_ To my amazing little sister and her equally as amazing wife, _

_ I’m so excited that you guys are having a kid, I say this as I watch my own kid smear her food all over herself. That said, she’s pretty cool. Since you two are probably gonna have a kid who loves being as messy as much as our daughter does, Megan and I got you a bunch of bibs.  _

_ We love you to the moon, _

_ Ty, Meg, and Grey _

Ella pulled the box out and opened it, on the very top was a bib that said, ‘these idiots put my cape on backwards’. They laughed, after a few more, there was one that said, ‘I got my awesome sense of humor from my uncle’

Ella looked at her brother, “She will not be wearing this, but thank you.”

“You’re so welcome.”

Next in the box was Liza,

_ Sis and Erin, _

_ I can’t believe you are having a baby, I’m can’t wait for her to be born because I’m already obsessed with her. Even though she’s a little Canadian I can’t wait to spoil her rotten. I tried to find a onesie with something about being half Canadian half American, but they were all really lame. _

_ Love you more than you know, _

_ Wooze _

Erin pulled the Liza’s gifts out of the box, Erin held a onesie out so she and Ella could look at it ‘My aunt is super cool,’ Ella laughed, took the onesie from Erin and set it on her belly, “She likes it already.”

Ella stood up from her chair to give her twin a hug, Erin followed suit and then they hugged Tyson and his wife.

“There’s still more in that box,” Liza said. 

“Right, sorry guys,” Ella said returning to the box and pulling out Seredy’s gift.

_ Els and Erin,  _

_ I thought for a really long time about what to get you guys for the baby, and I couldn’t think of anything until I saw Cambria cuddling with the owl that you got her when she was a baby. She loves that thing more than life itself probably.  _

_ I love you, and I’m so proud of you both,  _

_ Ser _

In the little pink bag, there was a soft blue elephant with big eyes. Ella hugged it and then got up to hug her older sister, “Thanks, Ser.”

“Of course.”

“She’s going to love it.”

“I hope so,” Seredy said letting go.

Ella put a hand on her belly, “She already does, she’s kicking.”

Ella’s mom nudged her forward, “There’s still a little something in the box from me.”

At the bottom of the box were two envelopes one for Ella and the other for Erin.

_ Erin,  _

_ Congratulations! When I first met you, I knew you were it for Ella. I knew you loved her more than anything. She loves you more than anything too, and I know that your daughter is going to be so loved, by more than just her moms.  _

_ When Ella and her siblings were babies, they all slept in the same crib. Their dad made it, when Seredy first came along. I had planned to give it to my kids when they had kids, but when I found it in my garage, it was broken. But babies need somewhere to sleep, so my gift to you and my surely to be amazing granddaughter is a crib. I want you and Ella to pick it out, so when you get back to Houston you are going to go crib shopping so that the baby has something to sleep in. _

_ All the love in the world, _

_ Shelly _

While Erin was reading her note, Ella was also reading hers.

_ My sweet baby girl, _

_ You’re almost there! I remember the days when you and your sister would play with dolls and you were so headstrong that you made your sister always be the dad of the babies. I’m so thrilled that you finally get to be a mom. I’m even more excited to be a grandma again.  _

_ When you were a baby, you slept in the same crib as Seredy and Tyson and when you grew out of it, I had your dad put it in the garage so that one day I could give it to you, but when I found it a few years ago, and it was falling apart. Which is why when you and Erin get back to Houston, you’re going crib shopping. After all, my precious granddaughter needs a place to sleep. _

_ Love, _

_ Mom _

Ella looked up at her mom, “You don’t have to do this, Mom.”

“I know I don’t have to, but I want to.” 

Erin walked over to her, hugged her, and said, “Thank you.”

Ella was crying watching her wife and mom. She stood up and walked over to them and hugged them. 

When they pulled away, Erin let her hand rest in the small of Ella’s back and Ella wiped the tears from her cheeks, “Thank you, Mom.”

“Of course honey, your father would’ve made me give you the old crib, but that thing was a safety hazard and I will not have any grandchild of mine sleeping in something that dangerous.”

“But it was okay if your own kids slept in it?” Liza asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We didn’t know any better! It was the 80s!”

“Yeah, yeah, same reason you let us play at the park a mile away without an adult there. It’s a miracle that none of us died,” Tyson laughed.

“I like to think that you all turned out okay, despite your sleeping in dangerous cribs and going places alone.”

Ella thought back to all the times that her mom let her do almost whatever she wanted because she had too many of her own problems to deal with them. Eventually, though, she got help and everything was okay again. She was able to be supportive and loving in a way that she hadn’t been able to before. Ella knew that she was the best mom that she could’ve been given the circumstances and that was all that she could’ve asked for.

~

She thought of when she first told Erin about her mom. It was before they had even officially started dating. Just after Carm left, she was sitting on the edge of Erin’s bed and Erin was talking about how great her parents were and she just started crying.

“Ella, what’s wrong?” Erin asked, sitting next to her.

“You just had like such a good childhood and your parents are still together and I never had that. I’m already such a mess and then with that added to it, you really don’t want to be with me.”

Erin’s face softened, “Look at me.”

Ella shook her head. 

“Or don’t,” she said reaching for Ella’s hand, “But whatever it is, I can handle it. If I wasn’t ready to fight for you,  I wouldn’t have let you kiss me the night that Carm left.”

“I’m not worth it,” Ella sighed.

“You are so worth it.”

“No, you don’t get it Erin. My mom is...was so messed up. I could be the same way.”

“What are you talking about?” Erin asked rubbing her back.

“When I was in high school, my mom was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and it’s hereditary and I might get it and I don’t want you to ever have to deal with that. You deserve more than me. You deserve so much better than me.”

Erin knelt in front of her and took her hands, “I don’t want anything other than you right now. I know it’s only been a couple of weeks but I can’t see myself with anybody other than you. And if that means fighting for you, so be it. I will fight for you ‘til the day I die because, to me, you’re more than worth it.”

Ella sniffled, “Are you sure?” 

Erin reached up and wiped the tears from Ella’s cheeks, “I’m more than sure. I love you, Ella. I know you’re not there yet, but that’s okay.”

Ella leaned down and kissed her, “Thank you, but I want you to know that you are by no means required to stay with me.”

“I will be there whenever you need me,” she said, getting up to hug Ella. 

“Thank you,” Ella whispered, hugging her as tightly as she could.

“Of course,” Erin said. 

~

At the end of the party, Ella got her family together so that they could take a picture. She and Erin hugged all the guests goodbye. After everybody left, they helped clean up all the wrapping paper from the yard.

That night, they stayed in Ella’s old room. It was still decorated the same from when she was a kid, save for the wall that was basically a shrine to Ella as a pro soccer player. Ella was in a shirt she found in one of her dresser drawers. It was a double extra large and it had an Illinois logo with some anti drinking slogan, so she thought she probably got it for free one day when she was at school and that was the only size that was left. Which was fine with her now because it was still big on her. Ella’s mom gave Erin a pair of shorts and a tshirt Anaiah and Cambria made with their hand prints all over it and Erin laughed when she walked into their room and saw Ella standing there in her giant orange shirt and Ella said, “Okay, best grandma, you can’t judge me.”

“I know,” Erin said wrapping her arms around her as they looked at the wall with all of Ella’s jerseys and newspaper clippings, “I can’t wait until we can bring Little Love here and she can see just how amazing her mom is. I mean, I’m sure she already knows how amazing you are, but like, you’re insanely amazing. Mind blowing actually, all that you’ve done for the game in the States, all that you’ve done for us. You amaze me every day and I wish our daughter could get to see you play.”

Ella sighed, “I’ve been thinking about that recently and I kinda sorta think I might want to come back, like maybe for a season or two. But I’ve officially retired and I’ve let myself fall out of shape because I didn’t think I would come back after I had her and I don’t know if we could travel all over the country with a baby.”

Erin sat on the bed and looked at Ella, “If you really want to come back we can talk to Randy about it. You didn’t let yourself fall out of shape, babe, you’re making another person, you’re supposed to gain weight. And honestly, I think we could totally travel with a baby if we needed to. Look at all the people who do it and it’s just them, both of us would be there to take care of her, plus all the girls on the team. They’re already obsessed with her.”

Ella nodded and sat across from her, “I know, but is it worth all the work that I would have to put in to get back to where I was when I retired? I could just be a mom and take care of her and be your wife and be more than happy doing that?”

Erin reached for her wife’s hand, “It’s ultimately up to you. As much as I would love for you to come back and have you around every day there’s more to think about than just us. If you can be happy just being a mom, then that’s okay. If you want to play soccer again, that’s okay too. I’m with you no matter what.”

“I know, but I don’t know what I want to do, both of us playing again would mean that we would be away from her for a few hours a day.”

“That’s true, but maybe the Dash would let us bring her with us.”

“I don’t know,” Ella sighed, “I think once she’s here we’re never gonna want to leave her and I don’t want to commit to coming back and then having her in my arms and then not wanting to come back.”

“So you want to make a decision on it until we actually have the baby?”

Ella nodded. 

“That’s probably the best idea.” 

Ella smiled and kissed Erin’s cheek, “I know.”

Erin laughed and leaned forward to kiss her. 

“I’m so ready for her to be here!” Ella said as she laid down, “I can’t imagine getting much bigger than what I am right now, like, I’ve still got four and a half months before my due date and I already feel like a blimp.” 

Erin cuddled into her side, “You’re the cutest blimp that I know.” 

“Thanks,” she yawned. 

Erin kissed her jaw, “I love you.”

“I love you too, but no dirty stuff in my mom’s house.” 

Erin sighed, “Not even a little bit?”

“Define a little bit.” 

“Maybe a little boob touching, nothing below the waist.”

Ella smirked, “I guess we could do a little of that,” she tickling Erin’s side causing her to giggle, “If we’re quiet.”

Erin bit her lip, “I can’t promise that.” 

“You better,” she said kissing the weak spot on Erin’s neck.

“Or what?”

“Or my mom’s gonna come knocking at the door and we’re gonna have to tell her what we were doing in her house.”

“I’ll be quiet.” 

“Good,” Ella said before going back to kissing Erin’s neck.


End file.
